Apologies for the terrible quality, but here's a picture of Ulf Dubois of Sweden-based Edita. Ulf spoke at last year's  conference about restructuring in the European printing industry, and very entertaining he was too.

The slide Ulf is standing in front of may look like the product of a spider on mescaline. It's actually an illustration to show the organisational structure and internal working methods of one of Edita's own customers.

Unsurprisingly, when Edita went to this customer with a solution that would simplify production of marketing communications materials, they were welcomed with open arms.

Some companies seem to spend so much time internalising and focusing on their own woes and worries, they miss the opportunities that come with fixing someone else's. The Edita story is a great example of a firm that has successfully reinvented itself through the simple-sounding method of understanding, asking and doing.

Anyone scratching their head about the direction their business should take could do worse than follow Ulf's straightforward advice: "Start with the customers, they hold all the answers to your future".