All successful organizations innovate. Otherwise, how could they survive? Yet winning organizations usually have one innovation that is especially visible:

Office-furniture manufacturer Steelcase recently suffered a few low-profit years. Even during that lean period, though, the company’s designers created many award-winning designs.

You sometimes can succeed in business by avoiding competition and swimming for “blue oceans”: new areas of endeavor where competitors are scarce.

Will customers benefit from your obsession with details? You bet.

It’s hard enough staying close to customers, but who would want to cozy up to their enemies?

It’s a savvy — and growing — marketing tactic: Hold short classes or workshops to draw customers to your business. By providing customers the tools they need to make smart decisions, you can build loyalty and your reputation, and attract new and steady customers to your goods or services.

As a child, Potter Palmer worked at his father’s dry goods store in a New York village, learning to set up displays and chat up customers. He loved to sell. He dreamed big. Palmer struck out for Chicago with a $3,000 family loan. This was his chance. To take advantage of it, Palmer tried strange new things:

Joe Horn, who co-founded Horn & Hardart automats in New York and Philadelphia, followed a simple philosophy that kept his restaurants full during the bleak Depression years: “Give people the highest possible quality at the lowest possible price.”

Many leaders are so busy with daily tasks that they fail to keep abreast of industry events and trends. Use these three tactics to keep that from happening to you:

It reached fever pitch during the dot-com boom, but it’s still true: Whatever advantage you have, someone will take it. So, keep moving … fast.

When clothing retailer Sy Syms founded Syms in 1959, he gained a competitive edge simply by doing things sooner than his competitors.

Cut through the fog of innovation by following these five principles to bring new products and services to market:

It happens all the time: One of your best clients or a prospective customer asks for a free product or service. You can either adopt an ironclad, no-freebie policy, or use the request to build business and good will.

Turn customer testimonies into compelling stories by including more than information about discounts, prices and how well a product or service works.

Many people say that you make real progress only by taking risks. But how about selling really risky ideas? Is it worth it?

Stay ahead of the competition by discarding the old rule of success

In 1992, Mike Schwartz walked into a Harley-Davidson dealership in Delaware … and learned that he’d have to wait a year and half for his bike. Convinced that he could do better, Schwartz told his wife: “I’m going to buy that place.” She knew he meant it.

In the brave new world of excess supply, your customer is king. So says Peter Georgescu, former chairman of communications firm Young & Rubicam.

Here’s a winning formula from a turnaround specialist: Stick to what you are. Nobody wants a Mattel pacemaker or Ford frozen pizzas.

When he acquired high-end lawn mower manufacturer Snapper in 2002, CEO Jim Wier’s lowest-priced machine sold for about $350. Because Wal-Mart also sold six other kinds of mowers for less than $200, Wier decided to pull the plug on his marketing deal with the giant retailer. But, feeling that he owed an explanation, Wier headed to Arkansas to meet a Wal-Mart VP.

Southwest Airlines has run a profitable airline for more than three decades. Here are its secrets:

Ever hear of Internet time? It’s kind of like dog years: Each calendar year equals six Web years.

A recent McKinsey study of the world’s most profitable megacorporations finds that their achievements are made possible by some shared leadership outlooks and practices.

With America becoming a more service-based economy, it’s vital that you offer great service as well as great products. But how do customers and clients define great service?

Baby boomers knew Frank Perdue by his advertising slogan: “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.” The guy even looked like a chicken. Frank Perdue really believed his chickens were better than anybody else’s. And he made sure they were.