Treat innovation like your health: Why most investments come too late

Smart innovation isn’t about more money. It’s about better timing.

This article was inspired by a presentation that visualized the cost curve of healthcare—showing how expenses skyrocket in the late, lethal stages of illness and life. The insight was simple, but striking: while not every disease or accident can be prevented, we vastly overspend in the final phase and underspend on early detection and prevention.

So the question arises: Do we do the same with our business models? Are we waiting too long—spending too much—when it's already too late?

Most companies treat innovation like a visit to the emergency room: reactive, expensive, and often incapable of reversing the decline. But just like with our bodies, the most impactful work happens long before the crisis hits.

Let’s explore why so many innovation efforts fail—not because of a lack of ambition, but because they’re started in the wrong phase of the lifecycle. And how a mindset shift from "fixing what’s broken" to "sustaining what’s vital" could be one of the smartest investments your business makes.

Innovation as emergency room: Why we spend more when it hurts most

When a company’s core business shows signs of stress—shrinking margins, aggressive competition, or shifts in customer behavior—the natural response is to pump money into innovation. Launch new initiatives. Restructure. Hire consultants.

But just like waiting until you’re sick to start living healthy, this approach is reactive. And it carries three major risks: