Dickeson--Throw Away the Crystal Ball

Read the trade/technology journals. Identify the best search engines on the Web to find out what's going on. Talk to your customers and "listen in the cracks" to what they DON'T say, as well as what they do say. All those activities outside the shop walls take time, intense concentration and, most of all, that painful effort called thinking. Precious hours spent in external responsiveness are extremely valuable to the business.