How can you both avoid being limited by the “it’s never worked before” attitude of having been in a market for many years and at the same time benefit from the experience of knowing that market?

The idea is to always keep a fresh mindset, able to create groundbreaking new ideas that not only keep up with but beat the constant change and evolution around you, regardless of the years of experience you have in a market.

There are many examples of companies who enter a market for the first time and take the market by storm: Zoom in video conferencing, Facebook in online interaction, Kickstarter’s crowdfunding in finance, Heura Foods non meat products in the food sector etc. Outsiders with a clean slate, a fresh mindset, bringing with them daring and disruptive new ideas that most companies had not seen, despite or because of the fact that they had been in that market for a long time.

You get used to seeing what is possible, limited by what you know (or think you know) is not possible. This is a limiting factor, specially when things evolve so fast around you.

Your fresh (un influenced from past experience) views might have you look at a market and see an opportunity or innovation that no one had seen before which could make you a groundbreaking success. At the same time there is value in the experience of people who “know the sector”.

The ideal innovation balance?
Create in your organizations an open minded mindset that a newcomer has. Also bring in outsiders, people who have never been in that sector before who might ask really basic questions, the ones that disrupt your thinking, have you rethink old ways of doing things and open new opportunities.

At the same time also bring in and be informed by, but not influenced by conversations with people who have those “many years” of experience in the sector, that are familiar with the key players, the key shortcuts. But I repeat never be influenced by their thinking, only informed by it.