Refreshed in mind, body and spirit thanks to GCC and a renewed sense of purpose, Megumi Ohba now finds herself supervising an expanding FLOWUS project team covering the full range of business development. She also is getting hands-on training of Panasonic’s brand of “monozukuri,” or way of making things, from members of Panasonic’s Research and Manufacturing group, who helped develop the prototype in order to gather and define product requirements and ultimate design specs.
“I definitely wanted to work with designers,” Ohba says. “I also wanted to work with marketers as well as customers.” The process of developing a working FLOWUS prototype and testing it on potential customers, who are everyday people—especially women with the same conditions that she, herself had experienced—introduced her to entirely new dimensions of business.
“Our FLOWUS team mantra is, ‘external beauty comes from inner health,’” Ohba continues. “We have verified the proof of concept internally and are now getting valuable insight from the general public.” Some individuals in the testing pool have become instant believers and ask if they can buy the test model. “That was really my most moving experience so far, and the point where I realized what it means for something to reach people,” she recalls.