Companies have a remarkable propensity for turning ideas into valuable, pervasive new realities. They can turn the unreal into the unremarkable: the car, the computer and the internet all began with improbable acts of imagination.

While most startups are focused on searching for the next big thing, those lucky enough to find it before they run out of cash often spend the ensuing decades scaling and exploiting the foundational idea. This leads to a split in the corporate economy between smaller, younger, high growth companies, and larger, more stable, profitable ones with lower growth potential. This division of roles makes sense in a world where competitive advantage is sustained. But the half-life of competitive edge has plummeted in recent years. Every company now needs to be able to reimagine itself repeatedly if it is to prosper in the long run.