getting suggestions. However, your competitors are probably hanging out on LinkedIn as well. So you need to think about what you share there. In addition, there are numerous bulletin boards and specialised networking web sites where you can post questions and get solutions. Again, others in your line of business may hang out in such places, so the ideas you get will not be secret. Nevertheless, you can get some great ideas and feedback from people in these groups. Moreover, a business which would be a competitor in Johannesburg is a potential resource for information and ideas if they are based in New York (assuming you both focus on local markets, of course).

Be Careful About What You Ask Customers Henry Ford once said that if he had asked his customers what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. There is great truth in this. Asking customers what they want will generally lead to product improvement ideas. But it seldom, if ever, leads to breakthrough innovation. Indeed, if a customer has an incredible yet viable idea that is a radical improvement on your product, she is more likely to launch a business making and marketing her improved product than to share her idea with you. In other words, she is your future competitor!

Nevertheless, you are in the business of pleasing your customers better than your competitors are capable of doing.

So it is important to communicate with those customers and potential customers in order to ask them questions. But your questions should be more focused on gathering insights that you can use to develop radical new products and services.

Great questions to ask include: “What do you use our product for?” You may find that some customers are using your product in ways you never intended.

Once you know this, you can look at ways to make the product more suited to this alternative use. More importantly, you may discover a whole new way to market your product? You might go one step further and ask “What unusual or unexpected things do you do with our product?” “What do you wish to achieve when you use our product?”

Clearly Henry Ford’s customers wanted personal transport that would get them to their destinations faster. “What are you unable to do with our product?” This again may identify that people wish to use your product in ways