LOCAL companies which fail to implement new ideas face closure or being acquired within a decade - even major players are not immune, warns an innovation expert.

"There are many businesses which implemented change, improved their business... and went bust," Paul Sloane told firms at a Business Link Wessex seminar.

"Polaroid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy - digital cameras came out of leftfield and sideswiped them."

Mr Sloane - an innovation author who has worked with IBM, BT, ICI and Vodafone - was addressing the Stretch Your Mind, Expand Your Business seminar in Lyndhurst.

He outlined his golden rules of innovation:

Check Your Assumptions - they can make your problems appear tougher than they really are.

Ask Searching Questions - what are your customers really buying, and why? Look beyond your product or service. What is their underlying motivation?

Deliberately Adopt A Different Point Of View - challenge the conventional thinking in your sector.

Try Weird Combinations - think of the solar-powered torch or the wind-up radio. What can you add to your product or service to make it significantly better?

Borrow With Pride - "pinch somebody's else's innovation from their industry and be the first to implement it in yours. The roll-on deodorant is based on the ballpoint pen."

Empower Your People - "you don't want happy staff, you want passionate staff. Your job as leader is to set the destination, let them choose the route, and help them."

Embrace failure - "if the only things you try are successes, you have taken few risks. Very often failure can lead to success. 3M had a glue that didn't work...it led to the Post-It note."

But above all, take action - "if you come up with lots of ideas but never implement them, you are not an innovator, you're a wacky thinker."

Stretch Your Mind, Expand Your Business will be repeated in Poole (Wednesday, November 16); Bournemouth (Tuesday, November 29); Southampton (Thursday, December 1) and Bridport (Tuesday, December 6) - 5.30pm for 6pm to 7.30pm each night. Details 08454 588557 or www.businesslinkwessex.co.uk/events