INNOVATION IS ALL ABOUT ATTITUDE

“They’ve been doing this for years,” she said, stirring her coffee absentmindedly. “They’ll never change.” Her colleague glanced over, raising an eyebrow but saying nothing. The company had been stuck in the same routine for decades - small, incremental updates on outdated products, and the same marketing strategies recycled year after year. They weren’t in trouble yet, but the writing was on the wall. It was as if they had been waiting for some giant leap of innovation to come along and save them.

And that’s where they got it wrong. Innovation isn’t some mythical, giant leap forward, and isn’t the exclusive territory of geniuses. No, innovation starts with something much simpler: attitude. A shift in perspective. A willingness to challenge the routine. And that’s what most people - most companies - miss. They think it’s all about big change, about bold revolutions, about transforming the world in one fell swoop. But in reality, it’s about the small, everyday decisions that set the stage for greatness. It’s about looking at what’s in front of you and asking, “Why does it have to be like this?”

Take Apple. Yes, they launched the iPhone and changed the world, but it didn’t start there. It started with the attitude of Steve Jobs and his team, an attitude that said, “We can do better.” The innovation wasn’t the product itself, but the mindset that drove it. And that’s the point people often overlook.

When we think about innovation, we picture companies like Tesla and SpaceX, moonshots and self-driving electric cars, companies that seem to exist in a different universe from the rest of us. But innovation doesn’t have to be that grand. It can start small. In fact, it often does. It’s the daily decisions, the little improvements, the willingness to question the status quo that eventually build up to something big.

The fashion world knows this. Or at least, it used to. Look at Karl Lagerfeld. When he took over Chanel in 1982, the brand was in decline. It had become a relic of the past, a “sleeping beauty that snored,” as Lagerfeld once described it. The world didn’t need another Chanel jacket - they needed something new. But Lagerfeld didn’t discard the past. Instead, he innovated within it. He took the traditional codes of the brand - its history, its silhouettes, its materials - and reinvented them for a modern audience. It wasn’t about making a big change, but about rethinking what was already there. The result? A revolution that didn’t feel like one, but quietly, elegantly, redefined the fashion industry.

That’s the thing about innovation - it’s not about wiping the slate clean and starting over. It’s about taking what you have and making it better. It’s about seeing the potential in the familiar. That’s what Chanel did, and that’s what so many companies fail to do. They wait for the big idea, for the grand vision that will change everything, and in doing so, they miss the little shifts that could make all the difference.

It’s the same story in the automotive industry. EVs were never going to be the massive leap forward everyone expected. They were going to be an evolution, not a revolution. But too many manufacturers waited for that big, earth-shattering moment, and in doing so, they missed the opportunity to make small, incremental improvements that could have put them ahead. Tesla saw it differently. They didn’t wait for perfection; they started with an attitude of experimentation, a belief that even small steps forward were worth taking. And now? Now Tesla isn’t just a car company; it’s a symbol of innovation itself. Not because they made the biggest change, but because they had the boldest attitude.

Innovation starts with the willingness to say, “Why not?” It’s not about having all the answers, but about being willing to ask the questions.

Think about companies that have truly innovated. It wasn’t about the biggest breakthrough, but about a series of small changes that added up to something transformative. Apple didn’t invent the smartphone; they just rethought what it could be. Tesla didn’t invent the car; they reimagined how it could work. And Karl Lagerfeld didn’t create fashion from scratch; he reinvented it by seeing the potential in what was already there.

So no, innovation doesn’t have to be about big change. It starts with an attitude - the attitude to see the world not as it is, but as it could be. And that’s where the magic happens.