The irony, of course, is that almost every valuable business started with an innovation because someone thought something could be done better. That immune system that attacks the next innovation is, for the most part, the protector of the previous innovation. Which is all to the good right up to the point where the general situation has changed enough that it’s easy (read: possible) to play a new innovation against the original.

Which leads me to my point. If you are in a situation that is desperate enough to warrant making a real bet on innovation, the first step is to choose an innovator who is
a) tough enough to survive the inevitable immune assault,
b) crazy enough to think that folks will come around to a new way of seeing things, and
c) willing to die, figuratively (I hope!) trying

And after all that, you still don’t know what you will get, except that it will be different and surprising, even to the so-called innovator.