Even Henry Ford eventually experienced the downfall of his policy of listening to the customers.

Though the “faster horse” quote is most likely aprocryphal, he is quoted as saying “any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it’s black”

Ford produced the Model T, with little change to its form factor, from 1913 to 1927, by which time other car manufacturers had ample time to catch up. Ford’s market share dwindled as GM and Chrysler made cars that dared to appeal to customers. The nerve.

There’s a valuable lesson to be learned here about the value of not only listening to customers, but knowing how to turn their input into actionable intelligence.