Are you looking to gather information for innovation? If so, it’s easy to get caught up in the issues of designing the right market study – defining its scope and the methodology. But what about the findings? How are you going to process them and handle the outputs – you’ll need to plan for that too...

As innovators, we all know that identifying hidden needs is fundamental to new proposition development. With the phrase frequently bandied about in R&D facilities, marketing departments and boardrooms around the world, it’s strange perhaps that only now do we have a book on the topic.

So, how well does this title equip us to identify hidden needs in our chosen sector? A competence, we are told by the authors, that is critical to innovation success.

Who is better placed to develop an adult soft drink? A soft drinks company or an alcoholic drinks company?

How about the soft drinks company? After all, they know the processes and technology for creating soft drinks.

Or is it the alcoholic drinks company? Aren’t they better placed to know what customers want?

If innovation is a mixture of technology/process and customer understanding, and neither company has both, how to know who is better placed to innovate?