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"Empathy Is Growth" But Not By Itself...

"Knowing the wants of your customers is more important than out-innovating your competitors" says Business Week magazine. Is there really some hierarchical importance here?

What if you're great at knowing the wants but not how to address them? I.e. empathy-driven insights aren't much good without an innovative mindset. You risk leading the way in understanding your customers, only to fall behind more-innovative competitors who excel at bringing solutions to the table.

Alternatively, what value is a great solution to a want nobody's expressed? I.e. where's the benefit of innovation carried out in a empathic vacuum? Occasionally a great leap forward is made by an innovation in search of a problem, and sometimes customers don't really know what they want until they see it. But innovation without a clear link to something customers value is less likely to succeed beyond the theoretical.

The Takeaway: Innovation is where empathy meets execution. Just my two cents...


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