In today’s fiercely competitive landscape, companies seek ways to stand out – yet paradoxically often look and behave alike. Viewing the world solely through a category lens traps companies in a cycle of competing to be better than each other rather than better for consumers. Looking outside your category can help break path dependence and unlock new growth opportunities.
The trap of incremental thinking
Henry Ford is often quoted as saying, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” Whether he said it or not, the point holds: innovation in many businesses is incremental, focused on one‑upmanship rather than breakthrough change.
This is true across many categories. FMCG companies launch countless product variants weekly. Telecom providers put out packages with marginal differences in gigabytes or minutes. Banks fight over rand differences across different accounts. Streaming platforms equate quantity (more) of content with quality (better).
Such incrementalism rarely delivers the kind of industry‑shaking breakthroughs that drive exponential growth. Knowingly or unknowingly, entire categories become stuck in the cycle of trying to make faster horses.
A key reason for this is that leaders look to peers rather than consumers for cues on what to change. One company tries something new, others copy it, and soon the whole industry follows suit. Remember the introduction of the vertical bank card? That’s now become commonplace. Benchmarking innovation against competitors, not consumer needs, narrows thinking.
The concept of Path Dependence, developed by Sydow, Schreyvogg, and Koch, explains this dynamic, where an innovation starts as ‘good practice’, becomes ‘proven practice’, then ‘corporately preferred’, and eventually entrenched as ‘locked‑in behaviour’ in a category. Once drilled in for long enough, at its most extreme, path dependence will manifest in phrases such as, “That’s the way we do things here”.
How path dependence develops
Take short-term insurance in the past: consumers once insured portable and household items only under broader umbrella policies. Even when new entrants emerged, they conformed to this model until Fintech players started driving the idea of single-item insurance and shifting the category.
Predictably, the others followed. Rewards, cash-back for not claiming, and premium-matching are other mechanics that brought differentiation but have now become base expectations. The list goes on across different categories. [Source: Based on the work of Sydow, Schreyögg, and Koch]
Breaking out of category paradigms
At eatbigfish, we use a range of tools to help teams get unstuck. The first step is removing category blinkers. As long as you view the world solely through the lens of your category, your perspective will remain limited to bank accounts, data bundles or insurance policies. As GK Chesterton said, “The traveller sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.”
This captures the essence of one of our most effective tools for breaking path dependence: Outlooking Safaris. They are designed to inspire teams to be travellers, by immersing them in new environments and experiences – beyond their everyday.
We develop the brief, split participants into teams and send them to varied destinations. For example, we could send a beer client to a cannabis store or an immersive retail chocolate experience, a bank client to a music concert or premium fashion event, and a telco client to a food market or perfumery – the list and combinations are endless.
Teams receive guidance on where to go, what to observe, and how to record insights in preparation for engaging ‘show and tell’ sessions. We say that breakthrough innovation often comes from “stealing with pride” – exploring different and sometimes unrelated contexts to spark fresh ideas.
Outlooking Safaris are inspired by an approach known as cross-domain analogical reasoning, which involves finding insights, structures or processes in other industries and reimagining them in your own.
Biomimicry is perhaps the most elegant application of this thinking, the art of learning from nature to solve human problems: the Shinkansen bullet train, shaped by the Kingfisher’s beak, reduced noise and increased speed; spider silk inspired stronger glass; and Velcro came from the simple observation of burdock burrs clinging to clothes.
Breaking through with tangible solutions
By immersing teams in different industries, cultures, and technologies, Outlooking Safaris break down category assumptions and fuel fresh thinking. They encourage observing, questioning, and borrowing from unexpected places to reframe problems and design standout solutions. We use 3 approaches to achieve this:
Cross-industry mirroring: Applying lessons from one industry to another
Formula 1 pit stop precision inspired better neonatal resuscitation processes in the UK. Another tool we use within the Safaris is intelligent naivety, which is about asking unconventional questions that can open whole new possibilities. For example, “Why can’t entertainment work like a gym subscription?” is a question that led to Netflix’s model, reshaping an industry. Such questioning helps you overlay one industry’s rules onto another to create a competitive advantage.
Cross-domain repurposing: applying infrastructure from one domain to another
This is where technology designed for one field finds transformative use in another. Gamification, developed for leisure gaming, now powers language learning like Duolingo and healthcare research like Sea Hero Quest, which aided in scaling Alzheimer’s studies.
Devices once designed for medical monitoring are now found in wearable tech and smartwatches. We use this approach to ask: what if your company was taken over by a business outside your category? What would it look like? What could you do?
Cross-cultural embedding: Applying societal philosophies to business
Cultural philosophies can shape leadership and purpose. Ubuntu, the South African belief in collective humanity (‘I am because we are’), has influenced leaders such as Richard Branson (Virgin Unite) and Howard Schultz (Starbucks). Lexus has woven the Japanese concept of Omotenashi, Japan’s highest form of hospitality, into its service ethos, making guests feel genuinely valued. Using this approach, we help clients insert new emotion into categories that may lack personality or human connection.
Leaders often succumb to path dependence, delivering incremental ‘me too’ solutions under the pressure of targets or driving new news, without asking if that solution is truly better for clients. Through Outlooking Safaris, you can break free from such patterns and reimagine the possibilities of your category. Importantly, exploring beyond category parameters isn’t just about inspiration, it’s about transforming those insights into actionable, implementable ideas.
So, before your next innovation process, ask: Are you truly delivering value, or just making a faster horse?
Tumisang Matubatuba is strategy director at Delta Victor Bravo (representing eatbigfish in Africa). For more information, visit www.deltavictorbravo.com
