Necessity is the mother of invention. And few things are more necessary to the success of an organization than customers. Leave that thought on the page, and we will return to it shortly.

Napoleon knew that a military force’s success directly correlated to the food it was provided. He offered a large prize ($75K in today’s dollars) to any person who could figure out a way to get better, healthier food to his army. In 1809, a candy maker named Nicholas Appert stepped up to the challenge and discovered a process to hermetically seal food in glass jars. Appert’s technique led to an 1810 patent and spread to the United States, where the first foods sealed and shipped were salmon and lobster! Why not start with the best?

We are in a fast-paced, rapidly changing business world. “As globalization gives everyone the same information, resources, technology, and markets, a society’s particular ability to put those pieces together in the fastest and most innovative manner increasingly separates winners from losers in the global economy,” wrote bestselling author and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman.

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