Abstract

The companies that will survive are those that "dwell in people's hearts." What is their perspective?

▼The perspectives of companies that meet needs that customers are unaware of:
Don Quijote, Keyence, Apple, Hoshino Resorts, Iris Ohyama, Workman, Fast Retailing, Kubota, Snowbeak...

How do companies that successfully capture "unknown needs" that customers are unaware of learn about those needs in the process that led them to this point?

By analyzing this question, perhaps we can offer a hypothetical, yet effective, perspective and framework to adopt when trying to learn about customer needs. This book is a logical development by a business strategy researcher, based on concrete examples, on a topic that has previously been tackled mostly by marketing researchers.

Author’s Information

Masatoshi Fujiwara: Professor, Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of Business Administration.
Graduated from the Faculty of Commerce at Hitotsubashi University in 2000. Completed his doctoral studies at the Graduate School of Commerce at Hitotsubashi University in 2005. After serving as a lecturer and associate professor at Kyoto Sangyo University, he became an associate professor at the Graduate School of Commerce at Hitotsubashi University in 2013, an associate professor at the Graduate School of Business Administration at Hitotsubashi University in 2018, and has held his current position since 2021. His major publications include "The Long-Term Mechanism of Innovation" (co-authored, Toyo Keizai Inc., winner of the Economist Award).

Takayuki Itami: Professor Emeritus, Hitotsubashi University.
Completed his master's studies at the Graduate School of Commerce at Hitotsubashi University in 1969. Completed his Ph.D. at the Carnegie Mellon University Graduate School of Business in 1972, and subsequently taught at the Faculty of Commerce at Hitotsubashi University before becoming a professor in 1985. He has served as a professor at the Graduate School of Innovation Studies at Tokyo University of Science and as president of the International University of Japan. During this time, he has also served as a visiting associate professor at Stanford University. He has written many books, including "Theory of Management Control," "The Logic of Business Strategy (5th Edition)," "The Humanistic Company," "Japanese-Style Corporate Governance," "The Logic and Management of the Place," "The Image of a Good Manager," "Fostering Innovation," "Honda Soichiro: The Master of People," "The Man Who Led Japan's High Economic Growth," "How Do Japanese Companies Make a Living?", "Doko Toshio: The Man Who Faced Difficulties," "Reading Management from Sun Tzu," "Management in the Heisei Era," "Thinking with Intuition, Verifying with Logic, Leaping with Philosophy," "The Resilience of Japanese Companies," "The Mezzanine Principle," "What is Management Science?", "Japanese Companies at Sea," "Management Philosophy Ignites the Spirit of the Front Lines," and "Management: Do the Unreasonable, but Don't Do Reckless Things."