P&G used to have somebody in charge of what they called commercial innovation, which is broadly defined as selling your product in different ways, without fundamentally changing the product itself.

Rail travel is a great example of an industry that is ripe for commercial innovation.

In Germany they have the BahnCard. A 25, 50, or 100 BahnCard are progressively more expensive to buy up front, but offers increased discounts on every rail ticket you buy thereafter, so the consumer has a great deal of flexibility.

The Danish railways give you free travel on your birthday, which leads people to consider rail travel who ordinarily may not have, and will likely lead to additional ticket sales from the people who are travelling with the person celebrating.

In the UK, the annual season ticket has become overkill for millions of people who no longer travel the same route five days a week due to flexible working arrangements. What if you could buy a 3-day-a-week season ticket? Or a ticket that entitles you to 30 journeys at a discounted rate, to take when you wish?

Rail services have a large number of smaller target markets, who all have different reasons to travel, so being creative with how you price it can have huge upside.

Another example, during the day, trains are largely empty. You could argue that they are merely transporting air around the countryside for a large part of the day, so any additional fare you can charge to put a bum on a seat, when they might have otherwise driven, is essentially pure profit.

Finally, I don't think there is enough done with communicating hacks.

People tend to consider a train journey as starting from the station nearest to them, but often the best way to travel might entail changing the start point.

Here's a hack I use for example. If I want to get to Oxford or anywhere out west from my home in Kent, it's quicker for me to drive to Redhill, get the train to Reading, and then get the fast train from there which avoids going into London, and is faster than attempting the whole journey on the train from Kent.

We can often add more value to consumers, thus increasing profits, by selling the same product in different ways.

Why don't we do it more often? I think the explanation is surprisingly banal. Unlike P&G, most companies don't have a name for it, and hence they don't have a department for it. So it's nobody's responsibility. What a waste!