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Change follows innovation. Innovation follows vision.
Change is what we do every day. We make incremental change in response to conditions. Even big changes are still just variations on an existing direction. Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect, defines this as directional thinking. It’s a variation along the X axis. There is nothing wrong with it, but it’s not the road to breakthroughs.
Innovators live on the Y axis. They operate on a different plane. They commit before the early adopters have anything to adopt. They proactively create chasms to cross (as Geoffrey Moore might put it) to define and conquer new turf before competitors know the turf exists. Their breakthroughs may not be perfect, but innovators can fix mistakes before the rest of the pack can react. Innovators reinvent the experience, redefine expectations, initiate or reposition customer relationships, create and own new relationships and build new markets.
For the rest, it becomes a game of “me too.” Following the leader is the default strategy for most organizations. It’s easier to follow and fight for market share than to create a new market. Not every innovative company excels at dominating the markets they create. But, innovators force competitors into defensive strategies and prevent innovation from being controlled by others. Masters of incremental change and wholesale imitation represent the largest part of most industries. But, the further down the food chain you live, breakthroughs are commoditized and the margins reduced to pennies on the dollar.
Change is an important function of management decision making. But it is not a substitute for innovation. A culture that can change quickly and react to opportunity will survive and even flourish. A culture that completely supports innovation, challenging the market by reinventing products, services and processes, is a culture that defines industry direction. Innovation is the role of a leader. Change is the response of a follower. Innovators see the vision and set the course. For everyone else, the view doesn’t change much.
Chas Martin
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