A few of the blogs I read have talked about the problems facing GM.

Seth had a few comments in a post titled “What To Do About Detroit”.  In it, he talks about the concept of having hundreds of car manufacturers, leading to increased competition and innovation.  Bob had a post where he talked about the similarities between Detroit and the music industry.

Alan Weiss had a podcast where he talked about the problems with GM.  In it he makes the point that GM needs to get rid of all its senior management and get some new people in.  But he says GM needs “great leadership, not auto smarts.”  He makes a great point.  Companies like GM have their management full of car people – people who have years of experience in the auto industry.  The problem is that this may not be the right thing.

People who grow up in the one industry will be closed to the innovation happening in other industries.  Alan believes that GM needs to find the best, most innovative people from other industries so they can apply that knowledge to the car industry. 

It makes sense, doesn’t it.  Sometimes the best ideas come from outside your area of expertise and from people who you may think would know nothing about your business.

It’s got me thinking.

Through the financial planning business, I belong to a peer group.  We’re a group of planners who meet three times a year to discuss issues we’re facing and to share ideas.  There’s tremendous power in the sharing and collaboration, and I come away with some good ideas (and hope that I’ve also contributed some good ideas).  But we’re still all just financial planners with a financial planning focus.

I’m looking to create an advisory board to my business.  On it I’d find people who have business skills or knowledge, but not from the financial planning industry.  I’m interested in the ideas they can come up with for my business.  Maybe because they’ll know so little about the specifics of my industry, they’ll come up with ideas and thoughts that we’d never have thought of ourselves, or would have discounted straight away.

So how is it in your business.  Where do your ideas come from?  Do you have a method or process to get ideas from other people who are not as close to your business as you are.

One of the visions I have for the Better Service Blog is to open an online forum where we can experience the same degree of collaboration I’ve seen in my peer group, but on a global basis across a range of service business.  Imagine an accountant from Africa giving marketing suggestions to a lawyer in the US!

What do you think?  What are the best ways you know of to get feedback and creative ideas?  How do you stop your business becoming so insular that you become like GM?