法政大学イノベーション・マネジメント研究センター ワーキングペーパーシリーズ

教育事業

企業家活動

チェーンストア

Pharmaceutical business

Corporate education

Entrepreneurs

Chain store

This article discusses importance of corporate education in business management. It focuses over-the-counter drugs market. It deals with the case of Hoshi Pharmaceutical Corporation which produced and distributed products into the market from 1906 to 1933. The company developed nation-wide chain store in Japan. This article also focuses on Hajime Hoshi who founded that company. Analysis method is mainly based on Hoshi University’s history, his critical biography and his analects. Hajime Hoshi founded that university. He was inspired by western culture and civilization in his young age while he worked as a primary school teacher. Under the influence of western culture and civilization, he moved to Tokyo where the center of Japanese culture and civilization was. After Hoshi graduated Tokyo Commercial School, he moved to the United States. In the U.S. Hoshi worked as a house keeper in the middle class families to earn academic fees. He also learned the demanding of them. Meanwhile, he recognized the importance of advertising through managing publishing companies. After he returned to Japan, Hoshi founded pharmaceutical company which focused on producing over-the-counter drugs based on his experiences in the United States. Hoshi made it a stock company afterward. He spent many assets on advertising and spread the catch copy “Kusuri ha Hoshi (Hoshi’s drugs are the best)” that attracted people’s attention. He adopted enlightening education program for accelerating the growth of sales network to improve his firm’s performance. Hoshi’s education process was propelled under the concept that prioritizing development of human resources which takes long time and costs many assets. This effort played a major role in expanding sales network which drove growth of the firm.

204 イノベーション・マネジメント研究センター (旧: 産業情報センター) ＞ 研究調査報告書 ＞ イノベーション・マネジメント研究センターワーキングペーパー [Working Paper] ＞ 180