I find it interesting that people like to view Henry Ford's quote, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses", as being an affront to innovation and collaborative development.
On the face of it, Ford seems to be saying that the consumer really has no influence on innovation. Indeed, that is the meaning of the words as they stand--the content. Now let's look at the circumstances under which these words could have originated, or the context.
Horses and horse-powered wagons had been in use for centuries; so, this is the point of reference that people could wrap their minds around. It would be natural for them to use that reference as the basis to describe an innovation that could improve their transportation needs, thus "faster horses". When looking at innovation from this perspective, how can one hurdle the obstacle of legacy knowledge to make the shift to a new unimaginable means of transportation?
To bring innovation by envisioning a new, unheard-of technology requires thinking of a different order: thinking propelled by genius. It is thinking of a higher order unfettered by the bounds of common knowledge...it is something entirely new; not just breeding faster horses. So do we get there to that higher order of thinking by collaborating with the users of horses? I believe that this kind of new thought occurs most often in the vacuum of individual creation, when the thinker using his experiences and his vision of 'what could be' brings about that singular new idea that lifts the rest of us to a different, higher reference point...i.e. mass production and use of motor vehicles.
Keep in mind, Henry Ford also said, "If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own", which indicates that he DID realize the value of collaboration.
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