Understanding the mind

Everyone talks about innovation. Its importance is understood by most and all sorts of leaders. Companies spend money on people and ideas to get to innovation. All of that is fine, but one should not try to innovate just for the sake of innovation, unless it is your hobby horse. The need to understand the user’s mind is the challenge for very successful innovations. Akio Morita (founder of Sony) initiated a market survey to check the demand for walkmans (convenient gadget for hearing music while walking). The results of the market survey showed more people not wanting the walkman and that the product would be unsuccessful. Still, Akio-san went ahead and introduced the walkman based on his gut feel (as people say it) or was it deep rooted understanding that people would want such a gadget and the negativeness simply comes from the inability to visualize such a gadget. For me Akio-san was able to read the minds of people keeping his own thoughts of the walkman as a reference to get to the point of decision that people would need a gadget like the walkman. We know the rip-roaring success walkman enjoyed in the initial years of inception.