Do your customers know what they want?

Customer centricity has become the corporate mantra that nobody is questioning or daring to oppose to it. Every strategy deck, innovation framework, and transformation roadmap seems to begin and end with the customer only. Yet, one cannot help but wonder: if listening to customer were enough, why do so many organizations still struggle to imagine genuinely new futures?

© Ihsan Oturmak "Dining Hall II" 2026 | Öktem Aykut

Customers are remarkably good at articulating what frustrates them today. They are far less equipped to describe what could delight them tomorrow though. Had innovation depended solely on customer feedback, we would have built a better horse, a more comfortable carriage, and perhaps an exceptionally efficient fax machine. The uncomfortable trutz is that breakthrough innovation rarely emerges from asking the same questions more thoroughly but from changing the questions altogether.

This is precisely why a growing number of organizations, from financial institutions to luxury groups and industrial leaders, are turning towards artistic thinking. Not because they seek inspiration as a decorative add on to business but because they recognize a fundamental limitation within many organizations where everyone has become an expert in their own silo, slowing down innovation and often lost in micro-management following their own inside-logic. The result is an organization filled with intelligence over marginal improvements and starved of imagination, missing larger shifts unfolding around them.

Artists have always worked differently and moved across disciplines with little regard for organizational charts nor customers. They connect ideas that appear unrelated, embrace ambiguity (willingly as a source) instead of rushing to eliminate it. They understand that the most interesting discoveries often happen precisely where expertise ends. This may sound extravagant in a business context, reserved to a few. It is certainly difficult to measure on a quarterly dashboard, however, the cost of its absence is everywhere.

Where does real transformation begin? Don't confuse brainstormings and colorful sticky notes with creativity. It's associative thinking. Period. Artistic practices introduce friction, fresh perspective and productive discomfort. They create encounters between people, ideas, and disciplines that would otherwise never meet.

Particularly now, in an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence (yes, it's going to stay), the value of human contribution is shifting. The scarce resource is imagination, a profound human, irreplaceable ability. Will customer centricity lead to the wanted change? We doubt it. Will technology for technology's sake bring about change? Not to the extent you'd hoped, we would say. Those capable of questioning the models themselves and who are courageous enough to explore possibilities beyond customer survey, market reports, or algorithms will be the change-makers. People who curate the future of their organization, business, or venture. This is the promise of Art Thinking.

Join us this Friday at our talk for Creative Mornings at the wonderful Softcover Shop in Vienna: 8.30 h breakfast and than some food for thought. Registration is already open:

We are already looking forward to spending the morning together.

Yours truly,

Margot

MDA sidenote: The Basel Social Club was launched in spring 2022 as a non-profit by group of artists, gallery owners and curators. The aim was to provide a counterpoint to the elitist art week by creating an open, freely accessible exhibition and interdisciplinary platform for contemporary art, as well as a collaborative and experimental meeting place where the social experience takes centre stage. It takes place annually in June, running alongside the Art Basel art fair, and combines art, music, performance, business and gastronomy in unconventional, temporary venues. As this year's theme was "Office", we simply couldn't resist...