Business has always been about find a need (ie. a customer's desire) and answering it. However, I think he oversimplifies and doesn't give the techies their due when he says that 'Vision isn't coming from [them]"; customers have needs, but the way they envision them being filled is limited by their understanding of the technologies involved (a farmer with no knowledge of internal combustion just wants more oxen to plow his fields), just as the way techies envision filling them is limited by the tech's understanding of the need involved (plowing a field in under an hour is no real advantage if it still takes days to actually plant the field). Working together is essential to get the best result (and what the farmer really needs is a way to speed up the entire field-readying, planting, harvesting process).
None of this should come as a suprise to anyone who's done any amount of consulting or tried to run a business. If it's news to Mr. Winer, well, I'm glad he finally figured it out.
