Are you building your own cliff?

When companies kill ideas to sustain the status quo.

We have all heard the story: Kodak invented the digital camera, but killed the idea because they didn’t want to cannibalize their film and paper business. But then others brought the digital camera to market. Kodak suddenly fell of the cliff and failed.

Do you have the same fate ahead of you?

Have you killed an idea before it even started because it was not part of the core of your business?

Have you heard colleagues or senior leaders say: “We want to innovate but we don’t want to transform or change the business.” Or “The business unit who would create and run this has other priorities. — So we can’t do it.”

Is your organization looking to innovation to increase revenue by doing more of the same, but better?

Then… you are building your own cliff.

Your organization has created internal barriers that prevent an idea from being successful. Ideas do not fail because customers or the market do not see value in it. Instead, the internal hurdles in the organization cause ideas to fail.

You might not feel any sense of urgency to change this.
Business was doing great!
No need to invest in radical innovation now.
Everything is going well.

Kodak thought the same…
Just before they fell of the cliff and failed.

Good luck!

Image credit: Valdemaras D.