Howdy! My first post is "New Year: A Moment of Reflection." It's a bit self-indulgent, but I figured it's the New Year, 2023, once in a lifetime, so I went for it. Future articles will delve deeper into tips and best practices in market insights and innovations to help build brands, product development, and customer targeting. It's about a 1-2 minute read, but if you prefer the audio version, give me a call, and I'll read it over the phone.
The Journey Begins: A Tale of Growth and Discovery
The year was 1992. “Welcome to Lyncs Incorporated’s Management Training program… when you exit Narita International terminal, look for the limousine that will take you to the company’s headquarters,” I reread the letter smiling while carefully folding and putting it back in my pocket. A limousine? This, I thought, was what I got for making the Dean’s List two out of the six years it took to graduate from college.
Imagine my surprise when I stepped out of the exit gate to see the bus. LOL. Unphased, I was on a mission. And that mission was to work ten years after college in a field I enjoyed where I could continuously learn and be challenged. I felt that after ten years, the world would be willing to pay for my ideas.
Reflection and Aspiration: Embracing Change
My first impressions of the Japanese work office were not what I expected. Fortunately, I had no other experience for comparison; I was happy. I was a “sarariman” (AKA salaryman)—a term I learned from a “Learn Japanese in 30 days” book I read before my big adventure.
According to Japanese popular culture, A salaryman is a white-collar worker committed to the company over anything else. They work long hours, making endless sacrifices, including riding in crowded trains day in and day out. That was me, but I was determined not to be outworked and showed up in the office one hour before anybody else each day.
Another lesser-known persona in the Japanese office was the “madogiwa,” which translates to “window seat” or the long-time employee who is given redundant, meaningless tasks and essentially stares out the window until it’s time to retire. I was determined this would not be the future me, so I sought new experiences in my work and tried to learn as much as I could. When it ended, my time in Japan was among the best! Laughter, tears, and a lot of growth filled those years—growth that included misperceptions, surprises, and changes in my personal and professional values.
The Journey Continues: Charting New Paths
Fast forward to today. I'm neither the "salaryman" nor the "window seater." While in Japan, the career I stumbled upon was marketing research, which has since evolved to include data science, predictive analytics, and technology integration over the years. And I’m happy to report that after three decades, companies pay for my ideas. These days I help them build their brands with market insights and innovations. Brands, like people, are filled with personas, aspirations, and experiences. After all, a brand is a culmination of peoples’ perceptions and interactions. With COVID and other current events, “all bets are off,” and if you’re not tracking your brand—both personal and your company’s—you may find yourself thirty years into the future wondering how you got there.