Feature Sustainability Discussion
The PLUS Group strives to achieve “social optimality” while cherishing our philosophy of “Four Way Satisfaction.”
Our sustainability policy system is penetrated into employees at work sites. Our employees and management come together as one to work on achieving our vision. At this discussion meeting, we discussed how employees work on achieving “social optimality,” as well as the joys of partaking in the results.
From left to right
- Marketing Division Stationery Company
Yumi Kato - Sales & Marketing Division JOINTEX Company
Chika Nagayama - Sales Headquarters Furniture Company
Tomohiko Endo
Current challenges
As a young child, I experienced joy and admiration in creating things, and I wanted to make tools to help people create things. When I was looking for a job, I became fascinated with stationery items, which are a type of creative tool, so I decided to join PLUS in 2007. After joining PLUS, I was assigned to the Marketing Division (currently Product Strategy Division) of the Stationery Company (hereinafter, “PSC”). I have been in charge of limited planning of the “Roller Kespon” and renewal planning of the “Deco Rush” decoration tape. Last year, I developed the “Packal,” a cloth satchel, which was the first attempt at PLUS. Currently, I am in charge of satchels while concurrently serving as a member of the glue tape product team, where I am currently involved in a project for creating new value in conventional office stationery while engaged in a project for overseas sales.
After I joined PLUS Corporation in 2012, I was in charge of sales at JOINTEX Company (hereinafter, “JTX”) and in charge of promoting the services of JTX. During my sixth year at the company, I became responsible for sales contact at a division of a large corporation, at the MA Sales Planning Division. Thereafter, I was transferred to the Furniture Company (hereinafter, “PFC”) at the integration of the office furniture business in 2022. While in charge of large corporations at the Sales Promotion Department, I tackle common measures across the PLUS Group, such as guidance at showroom offices, planning management of trade shows, and promotion of services.
After joining the company in 2008, I performed call center duties at the CRM Department of JTX. In November 2011, I was transferred to the Tohoku Office, where I took a sales position with the duties of proposing services to and having sales discussions with vendors and their customers. While the primary business of JTX is to sell products, the duties of the Tohoku Office have placed emphasis on providing total support for solving customer concerns since then. After returning to Tokyo in July 2019, I was a member of the Planning Department for “smart office,” for office e-commerce. Then, I was transferred to the Planning Department for “smart nursing,” where I was in charge of exploring and starting new products. I am currently working at the Business Conditions Development Division, which was established in January 2025, where I am working on starting new businesses and services.
Understanding of “social optimality”
Please tell us some examples where you have experienced or realized “social optimality” in your work.
Our company actively works on environmentally-friendly products. In particular, we are working on shifting to paper packaging. Every day, I ask myself, “What is good for the environment in the long term?” Also, “environmental contributions” have become an important value for generation Z. Our development team has created the “COE365” brand, with the concept of listening to the needs of customers while considering eco-friendliness. “COE365” does not only contribute to the environment, but has also been appraised for its trendy design and its incorporation of design elements that resonate with students. It has also received a major response on social media.
I have experienced social optimality from our philosophy of “Four Way Satisfaction,” which is touted as a management policy of the PLUS Group. I experienced it in a cooperative venture with CaiTech inc., a nursing and caregiving work sharing company. Operating a nursing business requires people, things, and money. However, past smart nursing was focused on providing things and was unable to comprehensively solve customer concerns. Under such conditions, we provided start-up and operations support in a joint venture scheme with CaiTech, which was a start-up at the time. Through this cooperation, we became able to solve human resources concerns at a nursing business. Through this joint venture, JTX gained a new contact point with the management of a nursing business, which had faced human resources issues. This has also allowed CaiTech to broadly expand their services by leveraging the sales network of JTX. This created a win-win business model for everyone involved. People tend to conventionally associate “sustainability” with the environment. However, if we look for a new meaning of “sustainability,” I think my work here counts as sustainability and as social optimality.
At the Sales Headquarters, I am in charge of tours of our offices in Ebisu, Toranomon, and Akasaka for more than 300 customers annually. Through these tours I witness on a daily basis our customers discovering the issues of their own offices and finding solutions. I think that this is surely an example of social optimality. Moreover, our offices are effectively utilized by both PLUS and our vendors, as they can also use our offices as event venues for end users. These events introduce the products of JTX and also serve as a hub to connect PFC, customers, vendors, users, and those at the PLUS Group. Through these events, we can experience firsthand that social optimality is steadily spreading both inside and outside the Group. Therefore, I too would like to participate and contribute as much as possible.
The future of “social optimality”
Please tell us about your goals and dreams that you would like to realize in your future duties.
Through “Stationery, and beyond,” I would like to participate in developing products that capture the essence of “feelings that users cannot put into words” and which are not necessarily within the framework of stationery. One example is our “Packal” cloth satchel. We proposed this product by wondering if it would be possible to develop functional satchels for users of stationery from the unique perspectives of PLUS, a company who has been involved in stationery. However, planning new products for new users comes with the issue of sales channels. From listening to Mr. Endo and Ms. Nagayama, I think it would be genuinely interesting if such planning could lead to the start of a project in a team beyond the framework of respective companies. I am genuinely interested in how it could help solve a broader range of issues. I have been focused on development, but, from hearing about your various past experiences, I think that I would like to be involved in all stages, to the delivery of products to customers, and feed them back into development.
I think that projects that go beyond company boundaries are truly a major future potential for the Group. I think that our offices, which are assets of PLUS, can be utilized to achieve Group synergy and further accelerate coordination within the Group. We recently opened “CREATORE with PLUS Sendai” in February 2025 and we have been expanding our office network. Therefore, I think that we should package the events for vendors that we hold at our Ebisu Office and expand the linkage knowhow to our bases across the country. At the roots of PLUS is a business culture of listening carefully to the needs of customers and quickly working to realize them. There was a case where my superior acted quickly in collaboration product planning, in which a vendor of ICT products was continuously rejected by other vendors. This then led to commercialization of a product. I would like to continue cherishing our culture of welcoming such challenges.
I would like everyone to know more about the state of evolving JTX to expand an experience-based business by giving shape to “customer-oriented merchandising” as soon as possible, which is the mission of my current department. To that end, I think it is also important to produce sound quantitative results, such as sales, but I understand that one of our missions is to create a framework that makes it easier for vendors and sales representatives of our company to sell new services. In my greedy pursuit of results, speed, and the solving of future social issues, I would like to operate the company while making improvements by emphasizing momentum unique to JTX.
Vision as a member of the PLUS Group
Please tell us about how you would like to lead or support the PLUS Group going forward.
PFC continues steadily advancing with the times while utilizing data from “Suwary” and the like for our offices, which are an important asset. We also utilize our knowhow in improving such value in our proposals to customers. As a member of a manufacturing company, I would like to be someone who continuously creates new value and who can provide information that is useful for a broad range of stakeholders both inside and outside the Group.
I joined the company because I was captivated by the word “uniqueness,” which is part of our corporate philosophy. That idea still remains and I would like to be someone who can embody the uniqueness. Also, I would like to contribute to creating a culture and environment where subordinates who are younger than me think, “PLUS enables me to take on various challenges.” or “I want to try new things at PLUS.”
I would like more people to become aware of the quality and enjoyment of PLUS products. My goals going forward are to create products that allow customers to become aware of the nature of PLUS and convey more information that leads to the realization of social optimality. I would like to continue being involved with development and sales promotion and to embody common global needs and the specific needs of users in our products.
This Is Our “Social Optimality”
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Creating new appeals from environmental consideration
As someone who is responsible for planning and purchasing of packaging and fixtures, I pursue a balance between environmental consideration, cost, and customer satisfaction. For our “SHIKIORI Cartridge” for fountain pens, we have shifted from plastic cases to paper cases, which lowered the packaging costs and roughly halved the unit sales price of each ink cartridge. Our “Fude DE Mannen” are the first pens in the industry to use “Kami Alle”, a technology for making paper transparent. This was part of our efforts to protect our products while demonstrating their appeals. I will continue to cherish our spirit of leading our industry in taking on challenges and our creation of unique ideas, to realize the values demanded by the current era.
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Making purchase management more convenient and smarter
Our Biznet service does not merely provide IT tools but also improves customer productivity and supports work transformations. For example, through our purchasing management platform that connects multiple suppliers across different industries, we eliminated the work of competitive bidding, invoicing, and acceptance input and have reduced the number of processes involved in purchasing to around one-third. We are also contributing to solving the issue of insufficient human resources. Going forward, we will focus on consolidating deliveries that were formerly distributed, so that we can create an environmentally-friendly and highly efficient logistics system. Throughout the entire Group, we will strive to deepen “social optimality” by fusing the strengths and resources of each company.
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Constructing schools that embody the ideas of local communities
We are involved in the overall production of schools, wherein we listen to the voices of residents of local communities and incorporate them into the concepts and planning of schools. For example, we are planning projects for constructing schools from scratch in cities such as Rikuzentakata City and Okuma Town following the Great East Japan Earthquake as well as wooden schools using lumber from forest thinning. Realizing the ideas of residents of local communities and pursuing well-being for children and teachers also helps improve our own well-being. We will continue to help incorporate and realize ideas and work on creating better schools and towns.
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Supporting social optimality through logistics evolution
The strengths of PLUS Logistics are the flexibility to construct logistics operations that are the most suitable to each customer and deliver cargo of any size or shape, and the high degree of knowhow in areas from warehouse design to operation and delivery. With our aim for “social optimality” that helps resolve labor shortages, provide environmentally-friendly solutions, and improve customer satisfaction, we are also making efforts in warehouse automation through improvements in shipping efficiency and robots. Logistics businesses operate behind the scenes, so it is difficult for them to communicate any cutting-edge challenges that they are undertaking. Therefore, my mission as a PR representative is to make it easier to convey such value to society.
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Future learning from “value in writing”
I am in charge of a sales planning, mostly for notebooks. It is fulfilling to value creating products that satisfy our customers and to utilize user feedback in creating new products. I have also been involved in activities for portioning waste products at the PLUS Group and collecting opinions on usability and areas for improvement. In recent years, I have been working on creating products to help support diversity, to make it easier to see the ruled lines and boxes of notebooks. Even in our digital era, I would like to expand this “value in writing.” Therefore, I would like to continue being committed to making products easier to use as well as to being particular about the quality of paper. At the same time, I would like to continue supporting education by utilizing my connections with teachers.
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Aiming for “Four Way Satisfaction” in manufacturing
I am in charge of product development at OFFICECOME. Last year, we released the “AE-1” office chair, which exceeds our flagship model. This achievement of a higher degree of comfort and design at a price below that of our competitors has garnered numerous favorable reviews from our customers. During the development stage, we spoke directly with our partner company, a manufacturer in China, to improve the product in a way that benefited both of us, and we are expanding our cooperative venture under a deep relationship of trust. While cherishing “Four Way Satisfaction,” we will continue to produce products that allow a wide range of customers to enjoy themselves and relax while working.
Please tell us about your work history and your current duties.