Exploration vs exploitation

When businesses gain a level of success they turn themselves to exploitation mode. They look at their existing customers and services and find ways to extract value. Internally this is referred to as execution. Simply going about the day to day to keep the machine running. The problem is that although this machine works today, as the markets shift it may well not work tomorrow. And if the market moves substantially you will not have an answer.

Exploration mode on the other hand is about about searching in the land of the unknown. It is not about adding 10% value to an existing product (that is what exploitation mode is for) it is about searching for where the market is going and being there ahead of time. This land is risky by its very nature, you are creating things that are new so you will have little data to compare or existing feedback you can mine.

Businesses need to find a balance of both to ensure they are profitable today, but prepared for tomorrow.