Powerful ideas power success. They invigorate. They stimulate. They concentrate energy and demonstrate value.

Little is more important to a business relationship. Want to truly become a trusted ally? Don't sell stuff. Sell possibilities.

Will your customers buy them all? No. Will they accept them all? Unlikely. Will they appreciate and respect them all—and the effort behind them? Most definitely. And, in the long run, there is no better retention strategy than flooding your customers with very good thinking.

Here's what our clients tell us good ideas bring:

• Options and opportunities
• Potential and perspective
• Freshness and enthusiasm
• Confidence, solutions...and even more good ideas

Where do they come from? Simple. Ask "what if?"

Constantly challenge the possibilities. Don't limit thinking, don't self-edit. Just create. Little ideas. Big ideas. Simple ideas. Grand ideas. It's all about ideas.

Creativity does not reside with a few, or the few with like minds. In fact, we've found that the congruence of conflicting outlooks often is the birthplace of innovation. That's why it's so important that an organization create a culture that encourages and rewards ideas.

Sometimes, those ideas need a little spark. Ever take notes with colored pencils or a crayon? It does tend to brighten things up a bit. How about noodling a problem from a 10-year-old's perspective. Or shifting chairs midway through a long meeting. Kick yourself out of the mundane, out of the familiar.

But idea generation is just the beginning. A good idea is a dead idea if you can't bring it to life. A good idea is a bad idea if it deflects your customers' attention or conflicts with your brand. To get from idea to "good idea," and from good idea to "right idea," takes focus and insight. That's not going to happen in a vacuum.

That's why research underlies all of our efforts, followed closely by serious, objective-driven planning. It's not to put a damper on creativity as much as it is to keep it moving in the right direction.

The measures of a right idea—rarity, relevance, innovation, do-ability—are direct reflections of deep understanding. You need to know your customers, their aspirations, their goals, their preferences. You must contrast ideas against personal and business realities. Only then will you know if the notion will fly. Put another way: If ideas are the kite, insight is the string.

There's a story told that, whether apocryphal or true, is quite striking about the power of ideas well applied. A couple of decades ago, the president of an overnight shipping company defined his job as "learning stuff." One day he was reading a magazine from the grocery industry—not the typical publication scanned by a freight hauler. He
came across a story about a new check-out-line technology called "scanning."

If it worked for them, he reasoned, why not for us? That one simple idea changed the world. You might have heard of the company. Federal Express.

That president did not limit himself or his thinking. He took what he knew of his industry, his customers and his needs. He assessed the new technology and its potential. He saw something, then saw something different. He opened his mind and opened the future. He took a gamble on an idea and won.

You never know where your next idea will surface. You can be certain it won't arise at all unless you continually create and express new ways of looking at old challenges. That means ideas. That means success.