A successful sustainable business need to run on order and predictability. They do so with tested processes and systems that are dovetailed into a particular supply-demand chain.
Innovation requires chaos and dynamism. Breakthroughs cannot occur when you are busy running a well oiled machine. You don’t WANT breakthroughs when the machine is running well.
Innovation then must happen outside of the machine. I have previously talked about it as an “interrupt”.
Even when we think of innovation-based businesses like a think tank, a design consultancy, a management consultancy; or even individuals who have mastered the Jekyll and Hyde duality of creativity and operability… innovation is a service sold by what is by nature a orderly and predictable business. The business model is not innovation itself. If this were the case, chaos and constant change – to the point where outcomes are completely unpredictable, the process unknown etc – would be the nature of the business. Not many customers are attracted to chaos!
