The Paradox of Innovation

To foster strategic innovation, a company must both embrace and resist its existing culture. Embracing culture provides a foundation for innovation, but resisting culture challenges the company to explore new possibilities.

We know that a company's culture is a source of stability, identity, shared purpose, and values. It provides a framework for decision-making, a sense of belonging, and a way to communicate and collaborate effectively. To innovate, an organization must build on its existing culture and existing collective capabilities, and leverage its strengths, but also recognize and preserve the values that make it unique.

If a company is too tied to its existing culture, it may resist change, experimentation, and new ideas. To be truly innovative, a company must be willing to challenge its own assumptions, question its own practices, and explore new possibilities that may conflict with the status quo.

The paradox of innovation in a company, then, is that it must embrace the culture and resist it at the same time. By embracing the culture, a company can create a stable foundation for strategic innovation. By resisting it, a company can explore new possibilities and free itself from the constraints that might limit its potential.

This paradox shows the tensions an excellent organization needs to have and the importance of both continuity and change in fostering strategic innovation in a company. By finding the right balance between these two forces, an organization can create a culture that is always ready for innovation and helps it remain competitive in a rapidly changing world.