Innovation is based on thought and imagination, which, together, produce new, different concepts. These usually do not reveal themselves through structured processes and cannot be forced to come into existence. Innovative people go out into the field, look around, ask questions and listen attentively. Analyzing the probability of a business opportunity means using both right- and left-brain activity.

Just as Matisse rewired color in a familiar template—that of the portrait—and thereby shaped a new language, so business organizations must keep seeking “the next great thing,” those products that bear new tidings and are not mimics or copies of existing products but the outcome of thought that colors the familiar in new hues.

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