In our book < Idea to Impact > we included a description of Geoffrey Moore’s four zones as a foundation for understanding a business lifecycle. Unless you are the one who innovates and disrupts markets, you are forced to respond to waves of innovation from others with waves of transformation just to stay competitive. It’s rarely the whole business that needs to be transformed, however—usually it is just one area or another that is impacted.

Silicon Valley legend Geoffrey A. Moore describes this business lifecycle in his book Zone to Win: Organizing to Compete in an Age of Disruption

Any surfer knows that you’ve got to catch a wave at just the right moment. The same holds for companies. To grow, they need to catch the next wave of innovation before a competitor does.

In fact, the best way for a company to grow rapidly is to introduce a new product or service that turns an industry on its head: consider the innovations of online marketing, cloud computing or electric vehicles.

Being an innovative market leader can be extremely profitable, often yielding 20 percent revenue growth over the first five to seven years after a new product or service is introduced.

On the other hand, if you miss the wave, there’s no way to catch it later. You’re best off searching for another swell later on!

Companies that experience continuous growth are experts at catching innovation waves. For instance, Apple caught not one but three waves in the last ten years: digital music, smartphones, and tablets. In doing so, the company completely transformed the market for mobile technology.

If you want to learn more we recommend reading <Geoffrey’s book>