Too Many Companies Fear Innovation, While the Winners Embrace It

Drones cleaning buildings?! Surely that’s only something you would see in a futuristic sci-fi movie. But seeing a drone cleaning an office building across the street from you today, in 2023? That has to be too good to be true. At Lucid, we live at the frontier limits of what’s possible with technology.

In the fall of 2017, I was a bright-eyed college student, with a burning desire to make technology that could improve people’s lives. I saw window washers/pressure washers repelling off the side of buildings, fighting against gravity with harnesses and suspended platforms, putting their lives in danger. It instilled a growing passion to build technology that could make this traditionally dangerous job much safer and more efficient.

Five years later, we have built a drone that can clean nearly every surface and structure under the sun. We have customers across the country that use our technology to clean offices, hotels, church steeples, industrial tanks, and even stadium domes! We have seen customers make over $25,000 in a day with our drone, cleaning buildings up to 8x faster than traditional methods, without having to put their workers on ladders, lifts, scaffolds, etc. We consistently see our customers making more revenue (doing more jobs), with higher profits (completing the jobs in less time), and with less risk.

The crazy part? Many still doubt that drone cleaning works and is here to stay, despite the array of testimonials, before/after pictures and videos, in-person demos, and jaw-dropping business results. Instead, we continue to see workers suspended above ground to perform this work, which leads to too many life-changing accidents and deaths.

⚠️ Each year, the United State has over 164,000 emergency room-treated injuries from ladder falls, according to the World Health Organization.

Why do so many people in the cleaning industry still doubt the efficacy and viability of using a drone to clean their buildings?

Fear of Change

While there could be a lengthy reason for why traditional companies are often slow to adopt innovative offerings, it typically involves fear of change. For cleaning companies that have cleaned the same way for decades, the thought of empowering their workers to clean with a drone seems almost too radical. When you have operated your business a certain way for many years with some semblance of success, it’s easy to wonder why you should consider changing. After all — if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it — right?

So, it begs the question: why should companies be more open to innovation? In order to answer that question, it’s worthwhile to take a trip down memory lane of other companies that were once very successful, but they failed to evolve and innovate fast enough to remain competitive:

1. Kodak and digital photography: Kodak was a dominant player in the film photography industry, but it failed to anticipate the shift towards digital photography. As a result, the company was slow to adapt and eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2012. Meanwhile, other companies that embraced digital photography, such as Canon and Nikon, saw significant success in the market.
2. BlackBerry and smartphones: BlackBerry was once a leader in the smartphone market, but it failed to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation in the industry. Apple’s iPhone, with its intuitive touchscreen interface and expansive app store, quickly gained popularity and surpassed BlackBerry in terms of market share.
3. Sears and online shopping: Sears was once the largest retailer in the United States, but it failed to adapt to the rise of online shopping. The company struggled to compete with e-commerce giants like Amazon and eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2018.

These examples show the importance of staying on the cutting edge of innovation in order to remain competitive in the market. Companies that fail to adapt and innovate risk being left behind by their more agile competitors.

Innovative in Name, Not in Actions

It is common for companies to claim that they are innovative, but in reality, they often fall short of living up to this claim. These companies may tout their innovative efforts in their marketing materials and public statements, but their actions do not always reflect a genuine commitment to innovation. In many cases, these companies may be more focused on maintaining the status quo and protecting their existing business model, rather than taking calculated risks that could generate disproportionate returns.

By positioning themselves as innovative, companies can potentially attract top talent and customers who value innovation. However, merely stating that a company is innovative does not make it so. These companies must also put in the hard work and resources to truly foster a culture of innovation and bring new, valuable products or services to market.

True innovation requires a genuine commitment to trying new things, taking risks, and continuously improving. Companies that are only innovative by name may struggle to stay relevant and adapt to changing market conditions in the long run.

The world is changing. Innovation cycles are happening faster and faster as technology and the global business landscape continue to evolve at a rapid pace. In the past, it may have taken years for a new product or service to go from concept to market, but now, the speed at which innovations are developed and adopted has significantly increased. Businesses must move swiftly to remain competitive. Companies that continuously innovate and bring new, valuable offerings to market will have a significant advantage over their slower counterparts. In this rapidly changing environment, the speed at which innovation is embraced and scaled matters more than ever.

I urge business owners to ask themselves the tough questions. Is drone cleaning for me? Is that new, innovative solultion in my industry worth exploring? The answer is yes. After all, this is a tale as old of time. In order to survive, your rate of learning and evolution must be faster than the rate of change in the world around you.