Byline: MARK JOHNSON And JOE SINFIELD

There may never be a snappier explanation of the "jobs'' concept than late Harvard Business School professor Ted Levitt's famous utterance, "The customer is looking for a quarter-inch hole, not a quarter-inch drill.''

Focusing on the "hole'' rather than the "drill,'' by understanding the fundamental jobs customers are trying to accomplish, is a simple but powerful approach to identifying what customers really want. Instead of concentrating on the solutions in use, a jobs approach looks at the fundamental problems customers are trying to solve in particular circumstances. It involves defining how customers are trying to accomplish ...