The phrase "Innovate or Die" may seem drastic to some, but there are an increasing number of cases of companies who could have survived, if only they'd thought and planned ahead.
Most businesses that fail did not see it coming, but the signs were often there. The founders who last tend to be the ones who keep asking where the world is heading, and what they would do about it.
The story that stuck with us
Back in 2016, our co-founder Richard Harrison wrote about a packaging firm in Lancashire that went into administration. The company blamed the new 5p charge on plastic bags in England for a sharp fall in demand. The loss of jobs was devastating, and it raised a question that has stayed with us ever since. Could innovation have saved them?
Nobody would argue the bag charge was a bad idea. It was good for the environment, and Tesco reported a 78% drop in new carrier bags handed out soon afterwards. But if carrier bags are your whole business, a change like that is not a small adjustment. The danger for any company that rarely looks at what it does and how it does it is that one policy, one shift in customer habits or one new competitor can undo years of work almost overnight.
Change has never been polite
This pattern is as old as commerce itself. Aerospace moved from metals to composites. Music went from records to tapes, then CDs, then streaming (and then back to vinyl again). Transport moved from horses to cars. In each case, some businesses saw the shift coming and moved with it, or ahead of it, while others waited to see whether it was serious.
Regulation keeps evolving, and the plastic bag charge itself has since been raised and widened. Artificial intelligence is changing how work gets done in almost every sector. Customers expect more, faster, and switch more easily than they used to. For a founder building a business in the UK, the only safe assumption is that something about your market will look different in two years' time.
Innovation is a survival skill
It is easy to think of innovation as something you do to get ahead, a bonus for when things are going well. In reality it is often what keeps you in business. That is also why it sits at the heart of the Innovator Founder Visa. Innovation, as we like to define it, means something genuinely different, someone who wants it, and someone who can sell it. Businesses that keep checking all three of those are far better placed to adapt when the ground shifts.
The visa route recognises this too. Plans change, and sometimes a pivot is exactly the right call. If you are considering a significant change to your business model, it is always worth talking to us early, so that you can make the move with confidence and keep your endorsement in good shape.
The questions worth asking regularly
You do not need a crystal ball. You need a habit of asking good questions, and asking them often rather than once a year in a rush. We think of them as a kind of survival guide for your business.
Where is the world going, and what is happening in your industry that could change things for you? Which technological, environmental or regulatory shifts might be on the horizon, and what would you do if one of them landed tomorrow? What are your core skills, the things you do better than most, and where else could those skills be useful? Are there diversification opportunities you have not looked at properly yet? And perhaps the most important of all, would you rather lead the change in your field, or be ready to respond quickly when it arrives?
There is no single right answer to that last one. Some founders thrive on moving first, while others do their best work by watching closely and responding fast. What matters is that you have decided deliberately, rather than letting circumstances decide for you.
IFARA
A philosophy that Richard developed is based around his acronym IFARA:
Insight - knowledge of what's happened in the past
Foresight - being able to see what's coming in the future
Acumen - the ability to make good decisions based upon your insight and foresight
Resilience - being able to weather tough times
Adaptability - knowing went to change, and having something to change to
This philosophy has always allowed Innovator International to make appropriate decisions and has been a fundamental factor behind our growth.
Make it part of how you work
The businesses that cope best with change are rarely the ones that wrote a brilliant plan once. They are the ones where questioning and adapting is simply part of the routine. Put time in your diary to step back and look at your market, talk to customers about what is shifting for them, and be honest about which parts of your offer might not be needed in a few years.
None of this has to be dramatic. Small, regular adjustments mean that when a bigger change does come, you are not facing it cold. Evolution becomes something that happens in your stride rather than something that happens to you.
Keep the conversation going
You do not have to work all this out alone. Our community is full of founders at different stages, many of them in the middle of adapting their own plans, and the Pulse webinars, courses and events are there to help you think things through with others who understand the route.
Because sometimes innovation is about growth, and sometimes it is about survival. The best time to prepare for either is before you need to.
