Don’t ask the experts, ask the students!

Interesting piece in today’s FT about japanese innovation. In particular the advice of Yukinori Kida, owner of a small Toyko-based components business KDA, which employs 50 staff and made a profit of Y30m on sales of Y1bn
last year.

"KDA spends a healthy 3 per cent of sales revenue on new product
development. Mr Kida uses students as researchers, believing they are
open-minded as well as cheaper: "University professors are strong on
narrow subject areas, but if you need to study a problem from a new
perspective, they are really not that good."