From an exciting trip to real business
It’s five in the morning. We are going back to Denmark and are sitting in the airport in Tokyo. It puts a huge smile on our faces when the airport staff comes and bows for everyone. That is the way to start the day when you take things seriously, and I feel lucky. WOW, what a trip in every way.
But the reality of the business is clear while we drink our steaming morning coffee. We can’t live off exciting trips and strong cultural experiences alone. We are here to find business, and we have opened a couple of exciting doors and great opportunities. Three months later the direct impact of the trip arrives and confirms our feeling – Japanese costumer number three is on board.
Japan has the oldest population in the world – And here is the foundation for more business.
When talking about average age, Japan is the world’s number 1, and they are doing it well. There exists an unsuccessful acceleration in those society-problems that arise when you have a demography that is “upside down”, and at the same time is globally ahead of the field of the average age of the population.
There is a need for innovative thinking within healthcare and welfare, and that innovative thinking has to come now. Seen from a Japanese perspective, Denmark appears as a strong proposal for an inspirational, welfare role model when it comes to the development of the future’s healthcare – whether it’s carried by hands, software, digital solutions or the so famous robots.
Confidential conversations from the cockpit
OK, the cockpit-thing is disingenuous : – ). But we are on the plane headed home, when we make the first serious business-assessment of Japan as a market. So far, we have been servicing our exciting Japanese clients from Denmark – and it is right there, on the plane, that we think that maybe a lot more has to happen to our efforts in Japan. But everything seems a lot easier when the adrenaline from our experiences meets the contrast of the relaxation and a good, natural tiredness on the plane.
Japan is not easy to understand. But when looking at Denmark from the outside, it is the same thing. Imagine if our two countries could create new solutions in the global market for healthcare and welfare. In both countries, we look towards a radically challenging healthcare – and welfare sector, if we don’t find specific, new solutions to the welfare and healthcare of the future. To put it inelegantly, it is a challenge that is one of the biggest problems in the world, and therefore innovation and rethinking are on the top of the wish lists for a lot of countries.
Japanese technology tested in Denmark.
In Denmark, we are good at testing and thinking in a new way. In Japan, they have huge companies with unprecedented technological literacy. Maybe that combination would be perfect in relation to creating the future solutions for welfare and healthcare.
A topical theme is, that innovation happens with a distance to the market. Imagine if the solution exists within a collaboration between Japanese engineers and Danish citizens. A sort of dual-national development cooperation with a global perspective and potential.
We’ll do it, we agree. We definitely want more Japan. A ride to Funen through rainy Copenhagen later, and the thoughts won’t stop. We have succeeded in finding the first customers. They want something. They know how to do something we haven’t seen before. We want it. We put our curiosity level on a turbo and put our business thinking cap on again.
The next article will be about the second trip to Japan, and the value of customers who want to work relationally, which is a perspective I have already learned to be grateful for.
Thank you for reading
I write what pops into my head when I sit down with the computer. I try to do it as real as possible and would love if you would like, share or comment on my stray thoughts.
From Odense to Japan: Part 2
