Is It Their Thinking or Ours?
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. — Henry Ford
A while back I sat in a presentation in which an evangelist from a huge corporation said …
Customers want innovation.
It was one of his PowerPoint slides too.
“Ah, no,” I thought. “Here I sit in a room filled with people who came to learn from him. Some of them, because of the man’s title, were bound to repeat that silly statement.”
Had I heard that sentence in my younger days, when I had less patience, I would have felt compelled to … um … handle it gently. His choice of words skews solid thinking.
Customers?
Every customer is a person.
The sentence changes when it becomes
People want innovation.
Do we? Do people want innovation. I suppose some folks put down hard earned cash for “innovation.” Personally, I’m not fully sure what innovation is until someone conceives it and shows me how it works. I certainly don’t go looking for it.
When I spend my money on what I need, want, or desire, innovation doesn’t make the list. Solving a real or perceived problem does.
Solutions make my life, easier, more fun, more elegant.
Solutions make me feel better about myself.
Innovation isn’t about me.
It’s about the person or people who came up with the idea.
What’s your thinking? Do your customers want innovation?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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