“The Great New Ideas” Where do they come from?

Another Excellent blog Entry from Tom Evslin, in it he talks about the source of great new product ideas.

“The point of this story is that no survey or focus group will ever tell you what the next great thing is going to be. That kind of idea, that kind of product, comes from visionaries who understand a new technology well enough to dream up an unintended use and who are stubborn and skillful enough to implement what nobody even knew to want.
These are the products and services that change our lives.”

I completely agree with him that successful companies or projects don’t always have to follow customer’s wishes or desires, and sometimes personal innovation is the key to achieve the next hit.

That doesn’t mean the market is insignificant and we shouldn’t listen to it, on the contrary the market is always right and you should always pay attention to its needs and growing trends and act accordingly, but also one should try to read “between the lines” and realize where the hidden potential lies, and how some existing resources and technologies could be utilized to create a completely new capabilities and uses that shape up the next great product.

Search Engine giant Google, One of my favorite companies, realized this thing and encourages its employees to innovate by allowing them to spend 20% of their work time on projects of their choice, also they are not afraid to release a lot of Beta products and services whenever possible, as it helps them test the market response and feedback to determine which of them worth dropping and which is worth further improvement.

I wish all companies do the same and trust its Employees, and I’m sure their performance will improve.