Integration Over Originality: The Real Pattern Behind Breakthroughs
- PG Geldenhuys
- Feb 18
- 4 min read
I’m road tripping in Durban and Joburg, and in between dinners with old friends, golf with family, cold plunge therapy and walks on the Umhlanga prom, I am training 60+ business leaders in three locations on Scaling Up, EOS, AI, Recruitment and Psychometric velocity in business. It’s a heady mix, and I love it. I'm also building on the shoulders of giants, which made me think…
There’s a story we love to tell about innovation. It usually begins in a garage. A lone genius. A lightning strike of originality. Cue swelling music.
Reality is far more collaborative. And far more interesting.
Take Coldplay and “Viva La Vida.” When it dominated the charts, some listeners heard echoes of Joe Satriani. Lawsuit ensues, and then Cat Stevens weighs in, pointing out he got there decades ago. Musically literate gamers smiled at the similarities to The Legend of Zelda. The underlying chord progression? Familiar territory in Western harmony. Not proprietary. Not divine revelation. Shared cultural scaffolding.
Coldplay didn’t invent those chords. They arranged them into an anthem that resonated in 2008.
Now jump to comics and film.
In 1980, “Days of Future Past” in Uncanny X-Men imagined a dystopian future ruled by machines, with consciousness sent back to prevent catastrophe. Four years later, The Terminator sent a cyborg from 2029 to stop humanity’s saviour. Shared anxiety. Shared time-travel mechanic. Cold War fears humming in the background.
Meanwhile, Alien introduced parasitic horror that clearly influenced the Brood saga in X-Men. The creatures even look similar! Inspiration was acknowledged. The comic evolved the concept. Later films fed back into the comics. Culture looping, not stealing.
Then we arrive at the tech titans.
The graphical interface that defines modern computing did not originate at Apple or Microsoft. It was prototyped at Xerox PARC. Steve Jobs saw it, refined it, and delivered the Macintosh. Bill Gates industrialised the paradigm through Windows. Lawsuits and accusations followed, but the deeper pattern is clear: invention, refinement, scale.
Apple itself iterated on prior MP3 players and the digital distribution disruption sparked by Napster. They did not invent portable music. They orchestrated it beautifully.
And perhaps the most famous example of all: Star Wars. George Lucas openly leaned on The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. The Hero’s Journey wasn’t Lucas’ invention. Campbell didn’t invent it either; he identified it across cultures. Lucas simply translated an ancient narrative structure into space opera. Later franchises borrowed from Star Wars. Tabletop worlds like Dungeons & Dragons remixed Tolkien, myth, and pulp fantasy. The creative lineage stretches back centuries.
We all marvel at the Steve Jobs and Elon Musks of this world. Their maverick genius lies concurrent with a seductive lie in business:
“Be original.” Build something no one has ever seen. Invent a category. Own the idea.
Nope. The examples above tell us that they integrated, they refined, and they executed.
That’s the real through-line of innovation; the same pattern runs through leadership frameworks.
Scaling Up distilled decades of management thinking into People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash. Clear priorities. Measurable KPIs. Meeting rhythms.
Traction and the EOS model gave founders a simple operating system: Vision/Traction Organiser, 90-day Rocks, Accountability Charts, Level 10 meetings, and scorecards.
Neither framework invented discipline. They packaged it into something usable.
Now layer in AI.
ChatGPT doesn’t invent strategy. It doesn’t invent leadership. What it does is collapse friction. It becomes a synthesiser. A structured thinking partner. A way to turn vague ambition into measurable execution loops.
So what you’re doing is not “inventing a new business religion.”
You’re integrating:
Scaling Up’s strategic clarity
EOS’s operating cadence
AI’s acceleration layer
Scaling Up sharpens where you are going, EOS sharpens how you execute, and AI sharpens the speed and feedback loop.
Instead of founders struggling for weeks to articulate a 3-year picture, they co-create a first draft in an hour and refine it. Instead of vague KPIs, they generate lead and lag indicators with clarity. Instead of messy meetings, transcripts become structured issue lists and accountability dashboards.
The frameworks are the chord progression, AI is the orchestration, and facilitation is the performance. Anyone can read EOS. Anyone can buy Scaling Up. Few implement them consistently. Execution is the moat.
This is the Xerox → Apple → Microsoft pattern in business form.
Xerox invented the interface. Apple refined it. Microsoft scaled it.
Scaling Up is defined strategic discipline. EOS simplified operational discipline.
Now you should fuse the two and leverage AI as a force multiplier.
It’s not about being first. It’s about being integrative and practical.
And this loops back to a classic line by Harry Truman (and often repeated by my sister): You can accomplish almost anything if you don’t mind who gets the credit.
Founders don’t care who first conceptualised the VTO or Rockefeller Habits. They care whether their revenue grows, their team aligns, and their meetings produce traction.
Your defensibility isn’t the framework… It’s the orchestration.
Protect what is legally defensible: brand, naming, proprietary sequencing, toolkits.
But recognise that in the world of ideas, synthesis is power.
Coldplay didn’t invent four chords, Lucas didn’t invent the Hero’s Journey, Jobs didn’t invent the GUI.
But they made those patterns indispensable to millions.
The same applies here. The market rewards implementation.
PG’s Pro Tip:
Don’t compete on originality. Compete on integration and iteration.
Here’s a ChatGPT prompt founders can use immediately:
“Act as an EOS + Scaling Up execution coach.
Context:
My company is: [Describe company in 3–5 sentences]
Revenue size: [Insert]
Team size: [Insert]
Biggest constraint right now: [Insert]
Step 1: Generate a 1-year outcome statement aligned to Scaling Up’s Strategy pillar.
Step 2: Identify 3–5 quarterly Rocks using EOS principles that materially move us toward that outcome.
Step 3: For each Rock, define:
– A clear SMART goal
– 2 lead indicators
– 1 lag indicator
Step 4: Propose a weekly Level 10 meeting agenda tailored to our size and complexity.
Step 5: Identify the single biggest execution risk and suggest one structural fix.”
That prompt doesn’t invent leadership. It condenses ambiguity.
And that’s the pattern across music, film, technology, and business.
The chord progression may be ancient.
The interface may be borrowed.
The myth may be archetypal.
What matters is how powerfully you execute the next movement.
Execution is where ideas become unforgettable.
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