Incrementalism is the quiet power of iterative compounding that changes the world, writes David Gilroy.
Visionary, ambitious, work-obsessed, uncompromising, polarising, critical and apparently his favourite – hardcore. These are a few of the words used to describe Elon Musk who has recently floated his company SpaceX for $2.5T. This figure is beyond hyperbole. I mean, a trillion is a million x million. This is insane – isn’t it? To put it into perspective, Tesco the UK’s biggest grocery operator took a hundred years to reach a value of $40B. SpaceX is worth sixty-two Tescos in twenty-four years. Putting it another way, if it were a sovereign state SpaceX would be 15th in value in global terms. Just below Spain and ahead of Korea. A few tweaks in the share price and it could move up to 7th ahead of Italy. He must be the most ground-breaking successful entrepreneur of the modern age. In a Sunday Times feature, his friend from college days, Adeo Ressi (himself a billionaire) gives a few insights into the psyche and character of Musk. Underpinning his undoubted intellect is his relentless worth ethic and his ability to keep going in the teeth of adversity. On a car journey in 2001, he and Ressi theorised that humans must be interplanetary and should be devising plans to build moon bases and launch regular space missions to Mars. Musk was determined to do it. SpaceX, founded in March 2002, is now the world’s fifth-most valuable company employing 22,000 people. The company has achieved more successful launches than all other operators combined. It launched 165 vehicles in February alone.
SpaceX has 10,400 active orbital satellites with Starlink making up over two thirds of all active satellites orbiting the Earth. But it has not been an easy journey. Speaking of his experience in venture capital – both as an entrepreneur and investor, Ressi says: “I often ask a rhetorical question of “Why do companies fail?” And people will say “the market”, “money”, plus others. And really the answer is that the entrepreneur gives up. Ressi outlines SpaceX’s near-death experiences and setbacks to illustrate how difficult the journey has been for Musk. His resilience, the ability to make radical decisions and fundamental changes to the mission that have underpinned his success. This is the radical change agenda on steroids. Disruptive innovation, completely replacing old markets or technologies with entirely new concepts. Breakthrough innovation, jumping straight to a next-generation product instead of tweaking the old one. Radical innovation, changing both the core technology and the business model simultaneously. Paradigm shifting, a complete change in fundamental assumptions, framework or ways of thinking. Saltation, sudden abrupt evolutionary changes or mutations rather than slow gradual evolution. This is extreme sports, stadium rock, high wire walking, high risk, and high reward.
Is this the best and only way to develop a business? Not always. What about the opposite to radical change? Incrementalism. Big visions get headlines. But when it comes to building durable progress, in policy, organisations, technology, or personal lives, the approach that wins most often is incrementalism. It’s the philosophy of making steady, purposeful improvements over time, compounding small gains into large outcomes. Incrementalism has had a bad rap recently (mainly due to the government), but this is not timidity disguised as strategy. It’s a disciplined way to turn ambition into reality while managing risk, learning continuously, and keeping coalitions intact. At its core, incrementalism recognises three truths: the world is complex, information is imperfect, and human systems are fragile. In such conditions, bold sweeps are appealing but brittle. By contrast, small steps create feedback loops that refine our understanding before we bet the farm. Imagine steering a ship in fog. You could set a dramatic new course and hope you’re right, or you could take short tacks, reading the currents as you go. The latter is slower in appearance and faster in effect. Incrementalism works so reliably because it harnesses compounding. Small gains, repeated consistently, produce outsized results. A 1% improvement each week doesn’t feel dramatic, but over a year it transforms performance. In organisations, incremental changes to processes, incentives, and tools often yield breakthroughs that no single initiative could achieve. It aligns with how people change. Humans resist abrupt shifts that threaten identity, status, or routines. Gradual adjustments give people time to adapt, build competence, and internalise new norms. This is why cultures shift through sustained practice, not proclamations. It reduces risk and increases learning. Big-bang changes bundle multiple assumptions into one high-stakes move. Incremental approaches isolate variables and generate data. Discover what works in the field, not just on paper, and then course correct before errors harden into failures. It preserves optionality. By making reversible moves, future choices remain open. Optionality is a strategic asset in uncertainty; not to be locked into a single path too early. It builds and sustains coalitions. In politics and institutions, sweeping change often unites opponents and fractures allies. Incremental steps, each defensible on its merits, can assemble cross-cutting support and maintain momentum without triggering existential resistance. Operational excellence is similarly incremental. Toyota’s kaizen culture empowers frontline workers to propose and implement small improvements daily. None of these changes is revolutionary; their accumulation is. Quality rises, waste falls, and the organisation becomes an adaptive system that improves as a matter of routine.
Leaders often face a paradox: if they move too fast, the organisation rebels or burns out; if they move too slowly, nothing changes. Incrementalism resolves this by separating pace from direction. You can be uncompromising about where you’re heading while flexible about how you get there. Set a clear direction, customer trust, safety, profitability, climate impact and then sequence the journey into milestones with visible wins. Early wins build credibility and create a culture of adoption. Resistance softens when people see tangible benefits and understand that feedback shapes the next step.
Crucially, incrementalism is not leaderless drift. It requires intentional design: prioritisation, measurement, and communication. The discipline is not in dreaming smaller; it’s in breaking big dreams into executable steps.
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