In an article that ran in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Koehn urges businesses to act and think as entrepreneurs “doggedly pursing opportunity.”

Reading the article, I couldn’t help but think of how social media has provided such a rich avenue of opportunity for companies to not only discover opportunity, but to glean the kind of consumer feedback that allows organizations to tweak and improve upon existing products and services. And for the brave, to launch new ones.

What do I mean? We see it time and again in the work we do for clients. Your consumers are talking about what they like, and more importantly in this reference, don’t like about your product or service. They are talking about features they wish existed, and how they use the product/service – possibly in ways you aren’t even aware, providing the chance for you to make tweaks so that it will better suit evolving needs or the needs of new audiences. Audiences you didn’t know exist.

Learning how to tap into these insights can not only save companies from “shooting in the dark”; it can provide small and medium-sized organizations the kind of intelligence that has previously been the privilege of much larger companies which much more substantial research and development budgets.

If your searching for ways to not only survive, but thrive in this economy, take Ms. Koehn’s words to heart. Doggedly pursue opportunity. I’ll just add: The right opportunity.

- Angela