A major reason Peter Drucker has been so influential to CEO’s and businesses alike is his quest to innovate and not stay at a standstill.

Living in Europe in the 1920’s, Drucker viewed the organizations and culture of the time of focusing on what was past and what did work as opposed to what can work. This level of “backwards innovation” of doing what worked was inconsistent with Drucker’s views of the landscape changing yearly and the customer's views of what they need changing monthly. Drucker looked towards the United States at the time, where businesses and corporations were setting their roots in making the American consumers lives easier, faster and more productive through the inventions of vehicles, household electronics and mass production. In 1933, Peter Drucker left Europe to move to America and be a part of that rapid change of focusing on what the consumer of today wanted instead of the consumer of yesterday.

Innovation is the key to organizational success, as the landscape and environment outside the corporation evolves and changes. Just like a river, adding new pieces and debris in changes the current, turbidity and ecological qualities of the river. New businesses and new products are no different, saturation of the market can change the customer landscape in effect changing their views of the company. “The customer is the boss” and it is the customer that states a new direction for change, it is up to the executives to decide if they wish to carve their own path or follow the customer trend.

There are two paths towards being an innovative company that one can take:

1. The customer wishes to go down a new path that is uncharted. This occurs when product innovation fulfills desires of the consumer and they wish to try more avenues and wish there were enhancements to products or services. (E.g. Best Buy launching Geek Squad to do in-home computer repair and setup services adapting to the customer need of purchasing complex electronics but wishing to have the convenience of service in a comfortable environment: their own home. In 2007, Geek Squad also branched into the uncharted path of home theater setup and installation, fulfilling a customer’s desires for ease of use home theater setup which cannot be done within a store)
2. One comes up with an innovative idea and carves a path that benefits all, even if those do not realize it. Proctor and Gamble’s division of Crest realized that a product can be created to help whiten one’s teeth for an extended period of time. Regular methods at the time in the 1990’s were to visit the dentist or use toothpaste that would whiten teeth, but only marginally. Developing a system of whitening teeth consistently through the long term require plans such as “What method should we use?” “How easy would it be to apply?” “Can we make it affordable?” “Can we balance short term results with the long term benefit?” Crest Whitestrips were created, a product that was affordable by the majority of consumers, easy to apply and showed massive improvement in the whitening of teeth. From there, customers drew themselves into the innovation and soon other companies fell suit in the newly created market of consumer teeth whitening.

How does a company innovate and optimize the resources of what it currently has? The abandonment of product, policies and ideas needs to be in parallel to the innovations a corporation is churning out yearly, sometimes even quarterly. Too much water boiling in the pot can cause overflow and not only create a mess that needs to be cleaned up, but a view and perception that the one responsible has become lazy and sloppy in their actions.