"has a direct effect on the overall markets. Something new to the industry, firm or tothe consumers is radical innovation but the consumer involvement is often arguableas the consumers are ambiguous about their requirements. (O` Connor, 1998) Assuggested by Duke (1994) and Trott (2001), broadening the consumer knowledgeby cultivating them can be the desired solution. For instance, consumers can beprovided with a virtual imaging of the product concept for future orientation. (Herstattand Lettl, 2004; van Kleef et al., 2005) However, the positivity of this is not trusted.As Morris and others (2003) concludes the consumers` experiences evident tomixed results and many has not given positive outcome.Consumer preferences aretaken into account during the stages of product development process and hence areinvolved with new ideas, conceptions and prototypes.Discontinuous innovation increases the risk associated with it but also the rate ofreturns is much higher.Consumers play the most critical role and thus organizations,irrespective of their size should adapt to the product testing concepts which wouldhelp them to identify the target market. Proper research methodology along with afocus on consumer involvement is a critical step in the product development processto make a success story. 16 GENERATION OF AN IDEAWhen any firm or a body thinks of developing a product, the first step is thinking ofan idea. Creatively thought ideas are usually welcomed in a positive manner byconsumers; www.ebay.com created an online platform for consumers as well as forsellers which was formed by Pierre Omidyar in September 1995, who thought tocreate an online marketplace for the individuals.(Ben Gomes,2001)www.mindtools.com can be thought of another creative idea; brainstormingidea being thought by its officials which further helps to generate imaginativesolutions to a crisis. It can be said that an enterprise is underpinned by innovationand innovation is strengthened by creativity. (John L. Thompson, 2004) An idea iscreated in order to produce a product or to improve it in order to satisfy the existingand new customers. This raises the question of involving consumers and theirextensions in the process; to put it other way the entrepreneurial potential should beused for people development as well. The idea may not be creative but the directionshould be appropriate in a manner that the objectives should be clear. For instance,some critics argue that if an enterprise has to reach its audience, it has to developideas on its consumers` terms. (Sam Altman et al, November 2009, n.d.) Applecan be thought of as the best example that it came up with most successful ideasand delivered the maximum value to its consumers; the reason being consumerswere their prime focus even in the thinking phase. An idea is created in search of anopportunity and thusSWOT analysis is also an effective tool in order to identify thenew product ideas. An idea should emphasize on what customers desires from theproducers and thus their involvement in the first phase should start from theirrequirements. As acknowledged by Darrel Rhea (1998), the needs of the finalcustomers should be addressed and hence the idea should be conceived anddesigned accordingly. Therefore, the developers, technical as well as theengineering department should formulate a deep admiration for who the product willbe designed for.An idea may come from an internal source or from an external source. Successfulfirms are found to institute systems and actions for thought-provoking idea creationon a long-term foundation. (Robinson and Stern, 1997; Felberg and DeMarco,17 1992)Moore (1987)questioned whether the firms need to establish a particularstrategy in order to develop new ideas. Idea generation should not be considered asan isolated activity but should be given a well directed management attention.Researchers found a need for development of techniques for the stimulation of ideasand thus continue to generate innovations. (Crawford, 1994) Ideas can ariseanywhere and thus the idea hunt systems should embrace the entire organization.(Vandermerwe, 1987; Robinson and Stern, 1997)Employees are found to be the biggest and most important source of endearing newproduct ideas. (McGuire, 1973) However, some criticizes with the role of personnelto be significant in the early stages of new product development process and thiscould be regarded as due to lack of a formal process and the employees take it asincreased workload. (Easingwood, 1986; De Brentani, 1991)On the other hand,some service firms are found to be maximizing the use of employees` acquaintanceand creativity in order to develop the overall development process. CreativeEconomy is now changing to the knowledge economy. For example, monthly focusgroups were conducted amongst the employees of National Car Rental in order todiscover ideas for improvising the existing services and thus developing innovativemagnitude of the service from the personnel. (Schneider and Bowen, 1984; 272)Kodak and American Airlines can be cited as examples which recognized inventivesystems to assist associations between employees. (Robinson and Stern, 1997)Different firms are found to be plagiarising the ideas of their rival firms. Diner`s Clubis the first to create a credit card which was copied by the various other providersnow. American Express Card, which introduced a card after 8 years is the mostsuccessful story. An idea need not to be absolutely new but can be applied in aninnovative manner to create a larger share of market. Facebook represents anotherexample of the networking website which came into existence long after My Spacebut became the topmost website across the globe. (2010; July 21) However,copying is profound in the complex business world. Firms largely depend upon theirrivals in search of ideas for new services and products than customers.(Easingwood, 1986; Scheuing and Johnson, 1989) For instance, 80% of bankingproducts and services are moreover copied from the rival banks. (Teixeira andZiskin, 1993) However, this is said to be dangerous with progress being thoughtlessand being cynical in nature.18 "