How Companies Can Build Long-Term Resilience Through Innovation

Summary:

• Companies fail not because they miss disruption, but because they fail to act proactively and sustain innovation.
• To build resilience, businesses must rethink strategy, innovation funding, and company culture, moving from closed boardrooms to open strategy.
• Sustainable innovation funding should be treated as a strategic capital investment, not an operational expense, ensuring long-term growth.

• Building a culture that rewards experimentation and iterative learning is crucial for adapting to change and avoiding bureaucratic inertia.

The business landscape is littered with the carcasses of once-dominant firms that failed to anticipate or respond to market shifts. Corporate obituaries often cite disruption as the cause of death, but the truth is more mundane: companies don’t fail because they miss disruption—they fail because they fail to act.

The antidote to obsolescence is not reactive crisis management but proactive, sustained innovation. Yet, many firms remain trapped in a cycle of short-term decision-making, driven by quarterly earnings pressure and an excessive focus on immediate operational efficiency. To build resilience, businesses must fundamentally rethink how they approach strategy, innovation funding, and company culture.

Rethink Strategy: From Closed Boardrooms to Open Strategy

Traditionally, corporate strategy has been the domain of a select few—decisions made behind closed doors by senior executives, detached from the broader organization. This model is outdated. In an era of rapid technological change and shifting customer expectations, companies must embrace open strategy—an approach that integrates insights from employees, customers, startups, and external experts to shape the company’s future direction.

How to do it:

• Engage employees in strategy discussions – At Shift Actions, we help companies design workshops that bring diverse voices into the strategic process, ensuring a broader range of perspectives.
• Look beyond traditional competitors – Study how startups, technology firms, and adjacent industries are reshaping customer expectations and business models.
• Challenge industry orthodoxies – Question long-held assumptions about pricing, distribution, and value creation that may no longer hold true.

Example: Nokia’s Rise and Fall

In the early 1990s, Nokia successfully used open strategy to disrupt Motorola by involving employees in strategic decision-making. However, by the 2000s, the company’s leadership grew insular, failing to question their own assumptions. When Apple redefined the smartphone market, Nokia was unable to respond in time—proving that strategic agility, not legacy dominance, determines survival.

Secure Sustainable Funding for Innovation

One of the greatest barriers to long-term innovation is inadequate funding. Many companies treat innovation as an operational expense (OPEX), which prioritizes immediate returns and leaves transformative initiatives starved of resources. Leading firms take a different approach: they fund innovation as a strategic capital investment (CAPEX), treating it like infrastructure—an asset essential for long-term growth.

How to do it:

• Create a dedicated "Future Growth Fund" – Shift Actions helps companies structure separate innovation funds to ensure that long-term projects are not sacrificed to short-term budget constraints.
• Fund projects like investments, not expenses – Move beyond annual budget cycles and adopt a multi-year investment approach for breakthrough initiatives.
• Adopt a venture capital mindset – Allocate resources to multiple projects, understanding that while some will fail, the winners will generate outsized returns.

Example: Amazon’s Relentless Investment

Amazon’s commitment to long-term investment is legendary. From cloud computing (AWS) to logistics and artificial intelligence, the company consistently reinvests billions of dollars in emerging opportunities, ignoring short-term profit concerns in favor of market-shaping moves. This discipline has positioned Amazon not merely as a retailer but as a global technology leader.

Build a Culture That Rewards Experimentation, Not Just Execution

Most large organizations are optimized for efficiency, not exploration. Employees are rewarded for flawless execution of established processes, not for questioning them. This risk-averse culture stifles innovation and prevents companies from adapting to change.

The solution? Build a system that encourages rapid experimentation and iterative learning.

How to do it:

• Reallocate time for exploration – Leaders should spend at least 20% of their time on future-oriented activities rather than solely managing today’s operations.
• Create "safe zones" for experimentation – Shift Actions helps organizations establish innovation labs and incubators where new ideas can be tested without immediate financial pressure.
• Celebrate intelligent failure – Reward teams for learning from failed experiments. Just as venture capitalists expect most investments to fail but a few to succeed spectacularly, companies must embrace a portfolio approach to innovation.

Example: Haier’s Decentralized Innovation Model

Chinese appliance giant Haier operates as a network of microenterprises, each empowered to innovate independently. This decentralized model allows Haier to continuously reinvent itself, avoiding the bureaucratic inertia that plagues traditional corporations.

Shift Actions: Helping Companies Escape the Short-Term Trap

At Shift Actions, we specialize in helping companies break free from short-termism and build innovation ecosystems that drive sustainable growth. Through innovation strategy design, CAPEX-funded innovation models, and open strategy facilitation, we help organizations:

• Design strategies that adapt to disruption.
• Develop systematic approaches to innovation.
• Align funding structures with long-term goals.
• Create cultures that reward future-focused thinking.

If your organization struggles to balance immediate performance with long-term transformation, we can help. Contact Shift Actions today to start building an innovation system that ensures you’re not just surviving today but thriving tomorrow.

Key Takeaways:

• Companies don’t fail because they miss disruption—they fail because they fail to act.
• Short-term thinking is a choice—leaders attract the investors they deserve.
• Open strategy, sustainable innovation funding, and a culture of experimentation are key to long-term success.
• Shift Actions helps organizations design future-proof strategies and innovation systems.

Are you ready to build a company that lasts? Let’s talk.