Are You an Active or Reactive Innovator?

Not innovating is no longer an option for you and your organization, when you want to be in good shape the day after tomorrow. Innovation is moving forward in every sector; whether or not your company moves with it. The world is rapidly changing. Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York and author of The Future of the Mind, predicts for example that, "In the next 10 years, we will see the gradual transition from an Internet to a brain-net, in which thoughts, emotions, feelings, and memories might be transmitted instantly across the planet.” Can you imagine how this might impact your organization?

In practice, I see organizations approach innovation in two different ways: those who want to innovate and those who need to innovate. I call those who want to innovate the active innovators and the ones who need to innovate the passive innovators. As you can see in the chart their roles are defined by the moments they really innovate their business. Every company, business unit or product has its lifecycle of introduction, growth, maturity and decline.

Active innovators, who want to innovate, give innovation priority at the end of the growth stage. Before they reach maturity they want to innovate, often for several reasons simultaneously: 

• To keep their revenue stream growing;
• To maintain an innovative mindset;
• To boost internal entrepreneurship (intrapreneurship);
• To address changing needs and wants of customers;
• To lead in technology;
• To expand their business by new business models, distribution channels and customer groups;
• To anticipate on new governmental regulations or a market liberalization.

Reactive innovators, on the contrary, wait. They wait until they get hit by a crisis, their markets saturate or get disrupted by new technologies and/or business models. They reorganize, lay-off people and prioritize innovation only at the start of their decline stage when they need to innovate. They need to innovate most often with only one goal in mind: to stop revenues and profits from falling and build a new future for their organization.

Both types of innovators have their own challenges. The good news for active innovators is that there are plenty of resources available as the company is doing well at the end of the growth stage. Their challenge is to cope with a lack of urgency at the operational level of the organization: “Why should we innovate? We’re damn busy and doing great!” The good news for the reactive innovators is that there’s great urgency also at the operational level of the organization, as there’s often been a collective layoff due to the business slow-down. Their challenge is compounded by both a lack of resources and a lack of time, as they will have to move quickly.

Are you an active innovator or a reactive one? And what about your organization? We all hear and read a lot of the top innovative companies in the world, like Apple, Google, Samsung, Amazon, Tesla Motors, IBM, Facebook, Starbucks and many more. They dominate the news. But there are more than 200 million companies worldwide. And you better believe the vast majority can be classified as reactive innovators. So, if your organization waits until not innovating is no longer an option, just remember that you will be accompanied by millions of other businesses.

The central question is not if you should innovate. It’s WHEN and HOW you can start and lead innovation effectively. I will write another post on it. I wish you lots of success on your innovation routes!

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