The Innovation Book

March’s exploration vs. exploitation

Successful adaptation is often about balancing exploration and exploitation. If you spend all your time using what you know, you are less likely to learn what you don’t know. Yet if you spend all your time exploring what you don’t know, you are less likely to grab the opportunities you find.

Innovator’s insights

Exploration is about finding out what you don’t know. Exploring is a deliberate attempt to gain new know-how. And only by exploring can you find new opportunities to exploit. The process of exploration involves you playing with new ideas (or old ideas in new situations).

Exploitation is more about using ...