Follow your instincts and ignore so called experts
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By
Business Editor Trevor Sturgess
Business leaders have been urged to forget focus groups and
follow their instincts.
Broadcaster and journalist Andrew Neil said in Kent that mobile
phones, Post-it notes, Sky television, the fax machine and CNN
would never have happened if focus groups had been heeded.
All these innovations were predicted to fail by focus groups and
experts alike.
Focus groups only told you that they wanted more of the same but
done better. Following focus groups would lead only to incremental
change.
"Incrementalism is the enemy of innovation," Mr Neil told
delegates at the Kent 2020 Vision show at Detling County
Showground.
"The first requirement of business leadership is to have the
courage and foresight to know that the customer is not always
right.
"Good business leaders follow their instincts and not what the
focus groups say. If you only listen to your customers, you will
only ever proceed by incremental change.
"Quite often, customers do not know what they want until you
give it to them. Real innovation, the product of bold leadership in
business, comes from being one step ahead of our customers, not
rushing to catch up with them."
Bosses should not be "boxed in by conventional leadership or the
tyranny of focus groups."
Mr Neil added that communications was the essential requirement
in a business leader.
A recent survey found that bosses rated it only the eighth most
important quality, while their staff ranked it top.
"In today's information age, most workers are brainworkers. You
cannot boss around brainworkers. An educated workforce expects its
bosses to be able to communicate and for the communication to be
two-way."
Integrity, ethics and honesty were also important qualities, Mr
Neil said.
Business leaders should hire people who compensated for their
weaknesses, not mirrored their strengths.
And any boss who had trouble attracting talented people, "it's
probably because your company sucks."
Monday, April 27 2009
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