The question is, the innovation is going to go to a customer or a user. Instead of asking what need does that fill or what benefit does that provide, let’s ask the question, what does that innovation ask the customer to become?

What happens when we treat innovation as an investment in the customer? And all of a sudden when you ask a question like that, you are realigning what the business is trying to do with what the customer wants or needs to become.

Story length: 2,151 words

Access the full story here. (Also contains 2.24 min audio podcast, available for download, of the interview with Michael Schrage, research fellow at MIT Sloan School’s Center for Digital Business)