Innovation through tradition or tradition through innovation

Medium-sized (family) businesses often strive to preserve their own tradition, but at the same time face the challenge of enabling innovation, transforming their culture, and increasing their attractiveness as employers. Today's business world is characterized by tremendous speed and ever-faster change. We live in a constant social and technological evolution that seems to be gaining unstoppable momentum. Customer needs change at a rapid pace, employee requirements evolve with each generation, and the context in which we work, love, and live is marked by pandemics, wars, and heatwaves. So, was everything better in the past? Or maybe not? Welcome to the "Future Education Institution for Family-Owned Medium-Sized Companies" (freely inspired by Thomas Glavinic). Nostalgic and romanticized thoughts about earlier times of entrepreneurship accompany many managers and employees in the present. But why is that? As organizations, we must break these thought patterns and collectively face our possible futures. We must dare to seek and find our future innovation capability within our tradition. Especially when working in an organization with a tradition, which is often the case with family businesses. Let someone write again that German family businesses lack innovation power. On the contrary, it is quite the opposite, but no one wants to talk about it - The Silence of Family Businesses. How could one survive in the market over generations, often even dominate and shape the markets, if not innovative and constantly adapting to new market conditions? Tradition is thus more a result of continuous innovation. Now let us use tradition to bring forth innovations once again. Let's delve a bit deeper into the scientific literature - don't worry, I'll keep it short. What is tradition anyway? One component of tradition is certainly "past knowledge," deeply rooted knowledge in the company's history. Knowledge about specific procedures, products, processes, or regions and markets. In 2016, scientists led by Alfredo de Massis published a study on "Innovation Through Tradition," in which they discuss the process of reinterpreting "past knowledge" and proclaim tradition as a success component for innovation in family businesses. Blindly eliminating the "old" in the course of innovation often leads only to renewal without value generation. But innovation is about creating value. Value for potential customers, employees, and suppliers. Taking existing knowledge into account in innovation activities can therefore be seen as a competitive advantage for companies rich in tradition or knowledge. The family-run Europa-Park in Rust recently showcased a prime example of this ability. Visitors wanted higher, faster, more intense experiences - the slightly milder roller coaster ride on the "Alpenexpress" no longer met the demands and was visited less and less. Europa-Park decided to equip riders with virtual reality glasses to immerse them in a virtual reality experience during the ride. Now, they no longer see the surroundings of the amusement park but ride on dragons over the park or fly through dark caves - still feeling the curves, centrifugal forces, and the wind. The perfect immersion was created, and in no time, the previously neglected, somewhat outdated roller coaster became the most visited attraction in the entire park. Today, Europa-Park has implemented the concept of "Coastiality" in various forms and even sells it externally to other amusement parks throughout Europe. Innovation through tradition. Decades of "past knowledge" in roller coasters that has existed over generations, paired with new technologies (VR), enables new business areas, new products, new services, new offers - in summary: new value. Voila. And let someone say again that tradition and innovation do not go together. They belong together.