It saddens me to hear leaders reference Henry Ford’s quote “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses” as a justification to innovate in a vacuum from customer and market input.
The rationale for closed, internal innovation is often a belief that the outside world isn’t nearly as capable at discerning product needs as a few people in leadership roles. Or those leaders may feel they get paid to know what the customer wants so they shouldn’t need to ask. Both are backward thinking.
This blog is evidence of what I’m talking about.
I started by wanting to do a blog about the real conversation Henry Ford should have had with his customers… First, I searched the web to read thoughts by citizens worldwide on the “faster horse” quote Mr. Ford. I quickly found Luke Hohmann’s blog which states perfectly what I wanted to say. He had this idea first, he is a more skilled writer, and he’s completed the job faster than I was able to myself. Open innovators are listening to and capitalizing on all of the Lukes out there. They are driven to achieve the market-relevant invention, the fastest and most economic way possible.
So over to you Luke:
“…innovation occurs from a deep understanding of your customers — their problems, their needs, expressed or unexpressed. Suppose that Henry had asked a customer “What do you want” and the customer has answered “I want a faster horse”. I’m willing to bet that Henry, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time, would have explored this a bit further…
Henry: “Why do you want a faster horse?”
Customer: “So I can get to the store in less time.”
Henry: “Why do you want to get to the store faster?”
Customer: “So I can get more work done at the farm.”
Photo taken by: Willdebeast
Hello I am dealing with customers each day so j had your blog helpfull.Thank u and goodluck.
Read Change by Design by Tim Brown, (recently published). I think you’ll find a much better explanation there.