RE3EL STANCE

I love innovation and progress.I love making things better. I love making things faster. I love making things smarter. But, stuck in an airport the other day looking for something to munch on I started to think that maybe in pursuit of making things better, faster, or smarter, people sometimes make things worse. Therefore, as we Rebel entrepreneurs look around us for business opportunities, maybe there is as much value in looking far into the past as there is looking far into the future. As an example, let’s have a look at the food industry in the U.S….

Foods used to be grown, raised, and made locally. Foods used to be made naturally, lovingly, and deliciously. Foods used to be made slowly and sold quickly.

A few years ago in the U.S. we reached a point that foods were no longer grown, raised, or made locally. Instead, they were being made almost entirely half way around the world and shipped, flown, or trucked to us. Foods were no longer being made lovingly but rather industrially. And, foods were being made quickly using chemicals we can’t pronounce so they could survive sitting in trucks or on the shelves for months on end.

But, look at some of the great entrepreneurial success stories in the last few years:

• Starbucks began roasting, making, and retailing coffee that was made with love
• Whole Foods started sourcing and selling foods that were made naturally and a whole slew of specialty foods companies began making products without preservatives
• Samuel Adams launched a brewing revolution taking a page from the breweries of centuries ago
• Chipotle forced its suppliers to stop pumping its foods full of “innovative” chemicals

The tradition continues with great little companies popping up every day, including grocery stores that only sell local products (Urban Rustic), wines and beers that only use “old techniques”, and restaurants big and small experimenting with “new models” (Farmers Diner).

So, as Rebel entrepreneurs, maybe we need to be more critical of innovation. We’ve learned from Apple’s success that stripping things back to the basics can often be the most innovative way to design. We have learned from the rise of Web 2.0 that maybe the internet wasn’t meant to replace human relationships but rather to enrich them. And, we have learned from the success of clothing companies like American Apparel that staying local can be more innovative than the alternative.

In recent years, “changing” has become synonymous with “innovating” but maybe we should be more critical of that. Maybe sometimes the biggest innovations come from not changing as everybody else around you does.

I’m not saying to not innovate. In fact, I’m saying innovate better by taking the time unnovate. Strip back some of those things that have become “accepted” as “better”, “faster”, and “smarter” and challenge them. Push the boundaries of them. Be critical of them. And, in the end, stop to think that the future can be created by looking back to the past as much it can be looking away from it.