Innovation Doesn’t Always Mean Starting Over

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This July, we headed back to epic Wild Coast family resort Umngazi. The same winding drive to the Wild Coast, the same cows in the road, the same bad drivers, the same jarringly hidden speedbumps. The same epic staff, the same incredible weather, the same tranquility mixed with chaos. The same morning fishermen at the river mouth, the same sandboarding joy in front of a raging bonfire. It’s become a rhythm, a family ritual that grounds us midyear.

But this time felt different.

The kids are just old enough now to explore more freely, which means the dynamic has shifted. There’s less hand-holding, more adventuring. They come back sunburnt and salty with stories we didn’t orchestrate. Meanwhile, I finally carved out time for those hiking trails that always taunted me from the other side of the river, and experienced them without any technology… even without any clothes, for parts of it. Yep, it was properly wild.

We even had close friends join us this year, and that added a whole new dimension. It meant longer chatty sessions around the pool for Caroline with Tavia, and I had (mostly losing) dartboard marathons and pool table tournaments with Alister, armed with beers in hand. There were the sideshows of Wimbledon and Springbok rugby and quiz nights in the busy bar while the kids were off playing supervised dodgeball with 40 other friends… It all added up to a richness that only community can create.

The food, which has always been good, felt even better this year. Maybe it was the fact that we arrived more relaxed, more present. Or maybe it’s just that we’re noticing more. When you’re not scrambling to figure everything out, you have more capacity to taste, to savour, to connect.

It struck me that we were experiencing more of Umngazi. Not because the resort changed dramatically, but because we did. We arrived more confident, more ready to receive what was always there. We knew where things were. We didn’t overpack. We booked spa treatments early. And because of that, we could go deeper. That combination of the known with the new made it one of our best trips yet.

It reminded me of a matrix I often use with clients when we’re talking product innovation. On one axis: how innovative is the thing you’re building? On the other: how familiar is it to the customer? The magic quadrant, the one you want to live in, is high familiarity and high innovation. Something fresh and exciting, yes. But also something that makes immediate sense to the people you want to reach. That’s where the iPhone landed in 2007. It was a phone, yes. You could make calls, send texts… but it also had multi-touch, the internet, a camera, and later, the App Store. Revolutionary, but still intuitive.

And here at home, we’re seeing exactly the same principle play out. Padel, for instance, has exploded across South Africa in the last few years. Why? Because it feels familiar. It sits somewhere between squash, tennis, and five-a-side football in vibe. You don’t need to learn the rules from scratch, and it’s social, quick to play, easy to get hooked on. But layered onto that is a level of innovation that makes it feel fresh: real-time scoring, live leaderboards, booking apps, digital lockers… even branded merchandise drops. It’s not just another sport, it’s a plugged-in platform with community at its core. Familiar format, new edge.

The same is true in the world of loyalty. South Africans understand the idea of loyalty points. Earn a few rands back here, get a toaster there. But Discovery has fundamentally shifted the loyalty game by combining its health platform with its bank, and launching an actual airline benefit system inside that. Not just cheaper flights, but airport priority lanes, lounge access, early boarding. These are real perks usually only available to frequent flyers or platinum credit cards. They’ve taken something we already understand - rewards, travel, status - and wrapped it in a layer of real innovation that changes behaviour. And the genius? You don’t need to understand anything new. It just works. You book your flight and you get ushered into the shorter queue.

Too often, we get the balance wrong. We aim for radical and end up alienating people. Or we stick to what’s safe and never evolve. This trip reminded me how much can be unlocked when you don’t have to start from scratch. When you know the terrain, but come at it with new energy, tools, or companions… that’s the gold.

It’s a different flavour of the Grootbos message I shared a while back. There, the shift was: you must evolve, because if you don’t, you’ll stagnate while the world moves on. But Umngazi? Umngazi says: you can go deeper once you’ve built roots. You can innovate on top of something you already love. You don’t need a new destination every time. Sometimes, you just need a new way of being in the same place.

It’s the same in business. The new product your team is launching? Make sure it builds on something your clients already understand. The pitch you’re rewriting? Keep the core that resonated before, and just add the layer they’re now ready for. Even the way you run your leadership team meetings: it doesn’t always need a reinvention, but it might need a new rhythm, a new lens, or the presence of a new voice in the room. Familiar, but fresh. 

PG’s Pro Tip:

Find your Umngazi. What are you already doing - or offering - that your customers (or team, or family) know well? What’s already working? Now: where’s the unexplored hiking trail? Where’s the extra dimension that’s ready to be unlocked, now that they’re more ready… and you are, too?

Not everything needs to be rewritten from scratch. Sometimes you just need to rewrite the speech after the audience already knows the setting. They’ll hear it differently. They’re ready for something more, but not something unrecognisable.

Here’s to new eyes, in known places.

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