The danger of the THE PURPLE ZONE
Transformative innovation is something a lot of organizations struggle with.
The question I ask myself is WHY?
Is transformative innovation to difficult, or is there no need for it?
After one year of research on my mission to inspire 1 million people to Innovate in 2021 combined with more than twenty years of experience in different corporates. I came to the conclusion that we are often not faced with the real urgent need of reinventing ourselves.
We are in a zone I call the PURPLE ZONE. We feel to comfortable to turn things upside down but we are highly aware of the change needed to succeed long term.
And this is the most dangerous zone we can be in.
Why is the PURPLE ZONE a dangerous zone?
You are committed but not enough to make a difference in the market, you are investing but not enough to move the needle. We move a little here and a little there to keep feeling comfortable and not to risky. We are happy with the average.
What are two strategies to escape THE PURPLE ZONE?
Let our business slowly but gradually fall into the RED ZONE: This means we decide not to reinvent ourselves until it is not truly necessary. We keep the trends and resist the pressure from customers and competitors and follow our plan regiously. We save development and transformation cost and put them on the side so we have a buffer to invest when needed. We are aware of the risks that will entail and are clear in our decisions.
Take massive action and catapult ourselves into the BLUE ZONE: We build capabilities from the inside out. We start with the leadership adding all employees, partners and our customers on the way to co-create, iterate and validate all assumptions we have about the potential future. We take risk and fail forward, we massively invest into changes, technology and adaptation we see ourselves as the leaders and trendsetters.
It is a strategic choice to be in a specific zone, which the board of directors need to have in sight and be clear about.
It is not better or worse to be in the RED or BLUE zone, as long as it is a strategic decision. The worst in my experience is floating in the PURPLE ZONE for to long and getting to comfortable doing a little every time.
Want to move into the BLUE ZONE? Contact me.