How to Find Innovative Business Ideas

The most innovative business ideas come from different contexts.

• The iPod wasn't built from scratch; Apple transformed the aura and simplicity of their computer presence and took it into the music environment.
• The same applied to online travel planner, Expedia. The company took the typical travel agency service, and brought into a different context: the World Wide Web.
• Or how about Toys R Us? The founder took the idea of supermarkets, and created "toy stores."

Says Florida's Andrew Hargadon and Stanford's Robert I. Sutton, "The history of technological innovation is full of examples of knowledge brokers bringing together ideas from disparate contexts."

When you're thinking of business ideas for your product, you could inch that much closer to a million-dollar idea by scanning a totally different industry.

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