Scale Up: Innovate or Replicate

November 2, 2017

The question of “scaling up” is a challenge to organizations of all kinds these days. Political activists spread their particular form of rhetoric, engaging more people in broader discussions of social issues. Business owners push to compete in ever-expanding markets. People find local solutions to challenging issues, brand their ideas as “best practice,” and take them to the market. The challenge is that change is a localized phenomenon. Even the largest scale changes of our times happened one person, one household, or one business at a time. We live in a diverse world, and while our needs may be similar, the solutions for those needs may not be. How do you know when you can merely replicate someone else’s solution or when innovation is the best path? And if you choose to innovate, what does that mean in your local landscape? HSD recognizes that there is no one right answer to those questions. What it offers is a way to see the challenge in actionable and useful ways so that you can look at options in your local context and find the path that is right for you.