Innovators Always Say, “Adapt or Die”

Are you part of a changing industry? (Aren’t we all?) Is the current paradigm you’re operating under missing the mark? How long has it been since you adapted new thinking, new methods, a new paradigm?

Billy Beane is the perfect personification of a leader that’s willing to forge ahead with new thinking, to risk the future, to understand that, while past thinking is of value, so is future thinking and to stay competitive, you have to “adapt or die.”

Imagine… Copernicus, Newton, #Picasso, Disney, Ford, Jobs, Musk. Each met resistance. Each were told, you can’t do it the new way because “you don’t know what we know.” You don’t have our experience and you don’t have our intuition. There are intangibles that only we insiders understand. The new ways won’t work.

To which the innovators always say, “Adapt or Die."

Of course, don’t change for change’s sake. But your industry...

retail, healthcare, consulting, finance, transportation, media, agriculture, manufacturing, technology, design, it's all undergoing transformative change. Right now. Change you may not recognize.

But someone will. Perhaps he or she will be an outsider, someone with curious credentials, maybe someone like “Peter Brand.” Keep your eyes and ears open. Your competition will.

Related: Innovation is a Decision