When we are looking at ideas, we really are thinking of three things. Are you doing something that seems consistent with the patterns of success? Are there reasons to believe you have or can access the right people to make it happen? Can we play a unique role in enabling success? We all have our rules of thumb, I suppose.

I feel for today's leaders. I really do. They got to where they are by doing a series of jobs exceptionally well. And that doesn't help them at all with the challenges they now face.

Good innovators like to solve business crossword puzzles.

Good innovators are careful observers, network extensively, run experiments, ask lots of questions, and find ways to bring diverse ideas together. Overarching all of this is an intrinsic interest in working through puzzles.

I've always found that working through ideas in written form really changes the thinking.

The most important thing here is to largely ignore what customers say, and instead watch what they do or track where they spend money.

We fool ourselves into thinking that the spreadsheets that capture our financial projections are something different than what they are.