Ask Dave Taylor: Tech and Business

Sunday

No One Every Buys a Product: The Innovator's Edge

I'm always happy to receive a copy of The Colorado Innovation Newsletter from my friend Gary Lundquist, and often find it my most thought-provoking email. Here's the latest issue, about how to establish your Innovator's Edge, and it's well worth your time too...

Would you go dancing with your feet tied together? Or sightseeing with blinders on? No? If not when relaxing, then why would you wear mental blinders at work? Perhaps you don’t, but people and organizations compete every day while hobbled by their own mindsets. Even simple misunderstandings can blunt our edge and weaken our performance. And worst of all, we rarely know that such problems exist.

I lost an INC 500 company because I didn’t know. It was a rocket ride to the stars that crashed without warning, in large part because the whole company had mindset problems. I’ve been driven ever since to look for the blinders and hobbles we wear because we just don’t know any better. Frankly, the problems are endemic. Almost everyone has them.

That opens a big door to opportunity. You can develop better products with higher productivity and then create greater impact on your markets. All it takes is acting on three very fundamental concepts. Let’s call them "The Innovator’s Edgetm"

The Edge begins with bold assertions...