How about from your users. The Boston Globe has in interview with Eric Von Hippel, author of the new book "Democratizing Innovation". Eric is a professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management. He recommends that manufactures should seek out lead users and use them to find new ideas and innovations. As one example he discusses how open source software projects draw on users for their inspiration. By the way, the book is available for free download. So, do you know who your lead users are? Better go out and find them before your competition does.