After all, Anthony points out, much of innovation is facilitating the jobs users are already trying to accomplish -- not enabling them to do something new. "You need to find stuff that customers haven't raised their hands yet to talk about," says Tom Kelley, general manager of Ideo Inc., a design consultancy in Palo Alto, Calif.

Looking Outside

Users aren't the only place to turn for ideas, however. Companies striving to be innovators also look outside their four walls for inspiration. Not only does this get the creative juices flowing by forcing people out of their usual way of seeing things, but it also may help you find someone who has already tackled a problem you want to solve.

P&G has famously established a practice of "open innovation" by connecting with outside experts and partners, with the goal of getting 50 percent of its new ideas from outside the company. And no wonder: A late-2005 Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. study of 1,000 worldwide public companies shows no relationship between higher levels of research and development spending and high levels of growth, enterprise profitability and shareholder return.

And it just makes sense. "If you think of innovation as problem-solving and you're the problem-solver, you'll take help wherever you find it," Price says.