The first German tank of World War II was about the size of your car.
The last was about the size of your living room. You can see the comparison here.
To beat those little early-war 6-ton light tanks, the Soviet Union produced a medium one: the 26-ton T-34.
To beat the T-34, Germany produced heavy tanks like the famous 60-ton Tiger.
To beat the Tiger, the Soviet Union came up with the Joseph Stalin heavy tank, and the Joseph Stalin II.
To beat the Joseph Stalin II, Germany came out with the Tiger II.
You see the pattern.
Competition drives creativity: in war, in sports, in tech, in politics.
But what happens when there is no competition?
Are you doomed to stagnate?
No. Because you can always compete with yourself, and the best organizations are the ones who do exactly that.
The proof? Zippers.
Japanese manufacturer YKK produces most zippers. It has over 45,000 employees and $6 billion in revenue. And recently, it released a new “AiryString” zipper.
Basically, regular zippers are attached to a sort of tape that embeds them in the garment. AiryString zippers skip that tape, and sews the teeth directly into the cloth.
The result? A lighter, sleeker, more flexible zipper.
YKK is also experimenting with a self-propelled zipper. Fancy that.
A lot of status-quo people might object:
- It’s a zipper. Can it really be improved upon?
- My old zipper works just fine.
- If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Innovative cultures respond:
- Let’s find out.
- Good enough isn’t enough.
- That’s what they said about horses.
But really, it’s not about the invention. It’s about the inventing.
A culture that doesn’t innovate when it doesn’t need to, will one day need to and not be able to.
It’s not always about cutting through something. Sometimes it’s just about sharpening the blade.
As the old saying goes, it’s better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.
The question is, what are you doing to stay sharp?
