Innovation

3. External Inspiration

Be market-led, or, better still, market-inspired (so that you can sometimes produce things the market does not yet know are possible).

3.1 Find out about existing and potential customers.

• Log customers' comments, complaints and requests. Seek feedback at meetings, through surveys or by printing a feedback form on bills or receipts.
• Find out why you lose customers to your competitors. For example, look for trends in quotations that do not convert into orders, or talk with competitors' customers at industry events and shows.

3.2 Know your business environment. If you can see change coming, you can often turn it from a threat into an opportunity.

• Be alert to environmental pressures, new regulations, economic factors, social trends and consumer fashions.

3.3 Know your competitors. What products or services do they offer?

3.4 Communicate with your suppliers and show that you value their opinions.

3.5 Identify the people you respect as experts in your field and find opportunities to talk to them.

• Read what they write in the trade press.

3.6 Investigate opportunities for benchmarking aspects of your business performance against other companies in your own field - or even in completely different industries. See Benchmarking.