For JetBlue, innovation is a make-or-break proposition. "The industry is so competitive, we've had to do things differently," Thompson says. "A key to our ability to innovate is to understand customer needs on a rubber-meets-the-road basis and recommend technology initiatives that improve the experience of crew members and customers."

Pitney Bowes Inc.

For the seven years he's worked at Pitney Bowes, Jim Eichner, vice president of advanced technology, has met quarterly with company executives to review what's happening with technology and innovation within the company. What has changed in the past four years is the emphasis on customer-centric innovation.

"We have a heavy focus on getting out of the lab and going to customer sites, using tools borrowed from anthropology to understand customers in their world, such as observing people, artifacts, settings, relationships and work process," Eichner says.

Those observations are used to create a hypothesis of a customer need, followed by a brainstorming process that leads to what Eichner calls a low-fidelity prototype. This is a system or device that can be built in a couple of days and put in front of customers to generate feedback.