Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs

CHAPTER 1

Why Didn’t We Think of That?

Products and services that resonate

 

 

 

 

 

The Japanese salaryman works notoriously long hours. He’s in the office until 9 or 10 p.m. and sometimes goes out for drinks and maybe some karaoke singing with colleagues after that. But there’s a problem. In the big cities like Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, the last train leaves for the suburbs around midnight. So, as the result of a long day at the office and perhaps a few beers, when a Japanese office worker gets on that last train, he often falls asleep.¹

Sometimes he misses his stop.

When the train pulls into the station at the end of the line, the conductors pass through the cars and find a surprising number of sleeping salarymen. They do what’s necessary to wake up the wage warriors and push them out the train door. The dazed salarymen then make their way into the quiet night—briefcases in hand, neck-ties askew—and find themselves in a rice-growing country town many miles from the city. They’re also far from their home stops, which passed by an hour before (perhaps as they were dreaming of that perfect rendition of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” at the karaoke bar).

Next train home? Not ’til first thing in the morning, still three or four hours away. A taxi? Several hundred bucks. Instead, our accidental travelers notice a hotel just across the street! And there are vacancies!

And so the blue-suited businessmen head toward their unexpected deliverance. When they arrive at the hotel, they’re greeted ...