Several decades ago, the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter published the book "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy" which, in its seventh chapter, introduced the concept of "creative destruction" which basically says that the essence of capitalism is to continually create new and more efficient economic structures at the price of destroying existing structures.
The " creative destruction " is not only present in the capitalist economic order but lives in business philosophy now more than ever when there are such highly competitive markets, therefore, innovation is a process that must be adopted by any company that seeks to endure. Through the years, not only for its own convenience but because the market demands it.
When you think about the background of the idea, the new replaces the old, you don't find anything new. Every day you will find examples in different areas of life, when we buy a new pair of shoes, the most likely thing is that we will begin to discard the already worn ones, in love relationships the thing is "one nail takes out another nail", etc. But if we locate ourselves at the business level we find that this process to implement change is difficult, not only in large corporations but in small companies, managers always have questions such as how do I expand my business? How do I find new ones? ideas? And how do companies like 3M innovate so successfully?
The difficulties behind these questions lie in the conflict between, the company's need to control existing operations and the need to create an environment that allows new ideas to flourish and old ideas to flourish. This conflict is nothing more than the inability of the firms to change their business culture, even though they have evidence that the market is asking them to change it. Many companies, if not the majority, wait until the market shows them that they must make variations in their business, be it the product, the price or any other characteristic of their own, without trying to get ahead of it, without understanding that the market always wins.
To a certain extent this culture of non-change is presented by the hidden formation of values, conceptions or mental rules of managers that in the long run are those that make up business philosophy. When these mental conceptions are in sync with the reality of the market, the firm is very likely to move in search of innovation trying to face the changing market, but when these conceptions are not synchronized with the reality of the market, the door to new competitors who will enter the market after appreciating neglected business opportunities, thus generating the space conducive to the decline of the company.
It is true that being pioneers in the market is important, it is true that being the first is also important, but how many times have business cases been presented that were very important and that later sank because of clinging to their traditional practices or products because they did not have the ability to innovate and they let the market beat them.
Companies must be willing to change, they must seek business opportunities without clinging to the past, managers must open their minds to new concepts and must promote the practice of innovation as the most effective tool to stay through time, if not, the market will let you know of its failures and it will probably be late by then.
The so-called new economy (not only that of dot-com companies) has a large component of innovation in terms of products and processes, but also in terms of the practice of innovation itself. The companies of the new economy are distinguished by their permanent search and because they understand that it is not enough to be the leaders today but they are tomorrow.
