I remember reading an article when I was first contemplating the risks and rewards of starting a business tied to passions of urban/economic revitalization. The article won the rights to grace the magazine’s cover with a phrase I had forgotten: Creative Destruction.
The term was originally touted by economist Joseph Schumpeter, and largely touched on the entrepreneur’s impact on long term economic growth, often at the expense of challenging (or to the extreme of “destroying”) any given era’s stalwart companies and practices. I don’t set out to ignore proven conventions, but history repeatedly supports Schumpeter’s arguments, most recently with the American auto industry. Though many factors aligned to lead to its crumbling, my hunch is the organizations became too full of themselves by thinking their longevity insulated them from realities of the market. Their size and longevity ignored the speed and spirit of innovation that their founders used to astound the marketplace with real value. Management layers thickened, bloated committees and their spirit killing politics and power plays prevailed, and then the omnipresent bumper sticker philosophy of taming creativity and innovation became operational mantra – “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. The latter allows you to quickly ignore the market and competitive shifts that are appearing in the rear view mirror – and those shifts, especially in today’s global economy, are definitely closer than they appear. Once they pass you, it really is broke, and a simple fix or innovation is now elusive.
