Keep on the lookout for novel ideas that others have used successfully. Your idea has to be original only in its adaptation to the problem you're working on.

Most of my ideas belonged to other people who never bothered to develop them.

At Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come from the top - I'm afraid that's not quite right.

My principal business is giving commercial value to the brilliant - but misdirected - ideas of others.

Pretty much, Apple and Dell are the only ones in this industry making money. They make it by being WalMart. We make it by innovation.

Your customers dream of a happier and better life. Don't move products. Instead, enrich lives.