Empathy is key to business innovation

Innovation is key to a business’s ongoing success. But many are not certain about how to make innovation happen. As an ethnographer I believe that innovation starts with empathy, which is critical for developing a deep connection to the customer.

Everybody knows what empathy is – walking in someone else’s shoes, feeling what other’s feel, to “get” where they are coming from. So when it comes to business research, ethnography is the best way to understand consumers’ feelings and behavior as a function of their cultural context.