The MAC Partnership defines its area of focus as Customer-Inspired Innovation. Customer-Inspired Innovation is a philosophy based on six fundamental beliefs.

1. Organizations need a unique value proposition.

Organizations often over-focus on creating internal operational improvements – what is often referred to as execution or alignment processes -- while failing to place them in the context of a unique offering of value to customers. These processes, while indispensable to profitability and business success, can only succeed when driven by a well-articulated value proposition for the customer.

2. Start with the customer.

The best way to define a unique offering for customers is to start with the creative observation of those customers and potential customers in their daily lives. As a result, we have little interest in inside-out or purely economic views of strategy or innovation, nor do we believe that operational and technology improvements in themselves amount to a strategy.

3. Customers are only half the equation.

Customers in themselves are never the full answer because they cannot articulate how their needs potentially echo with your capabilities. In and of themselves, customers produce the sound of one hand clapping. But the observation of their behaviors provides the raw material for new ideas, and leads attentive organizations to new sources of value for customers and prospective customers.

4. Focus on the emotional side.

Customers act as a fountain of inspiration for organizations on a functional and emotional level. The observation of customer behaviors appeals to the rational side of managers, who can conceptualize potential new offerings to address the issues faced by those customers. Even more importantly, though, customers provide the emotional jolt required to drive the mobilization of organizations, often resulting in a dynamic climate of co-creation, and facilitating the emergence of creative offerings.

5. Customers should permeate all processes, from the tactical to the strategic.

The process of customer-inspired innovation occurs at both the tactical and strategic levels. Many people wrongly reserve the concept of innovation for strategy formulation. Customer-inspired innovation should drive the day-to-day process of building customer relationships, the operational processes of marketing and product development, the design of leadership and mobilization processes, as well as, yes, the strategy of the firm. In fact, the common understanding of what is being delivered to the customer is what produces alignment and good execution.

6. Customer-inspired innovation involves "morphing" what exists beyond recognition, not creating giant leaps into the unknown.

Innovation rarely occurs through outright discontinuities. Creative value propositions are not the result of extraordinary leaps of inspiration resulting from a unique ability by some leaders to project the future. Successful innovation involves the painstaking modification or adaptation of what already exists inside or outside the organization, often even outside the organization's industry. This creative process involves stretching or distorting existing offerings beyond recognition, inspired by the observation of customer behaviors.