The orchard and the edge: The innovation quest in animal health

For animal health, innovation isn’t a product of inspiration alone. It’s the discipline to find new ideas, the courage to embrace chaos, and the creativity to overcome challenges.

By Adam Wilbers, Content Specialist

Innovation as a concept defies easy explanation. Many assume it refers to the introduction of something new, such as a device, a method or an idea. But for those who innovate, that definition hardly scratches the surface.

Sure, innovation is novel, but it must also solve real issues. It requires messy problems, countless decisions, numerous setbacks and painstaking effort—perhaps most difficult of all, it calls for iteration and failure. Much like the hero’s journey, innovation begins with the call to adventure.

That’s why we’re reflecting on lessons from two recent animal health conferences, the KC Animal Health Summit and the Veterinary Innovation Summit. Together, the perspectives shared at these events reveal a current tension in animal health innovation: that ideas are becoming harder to generate and scale, and at the same time, the ever-changing industry is fertile ground for innovative breakthroughs.

To put it simply, innovation is not simple. And “innovation isn’t enough on its own,” says veterinary economist Matt Salois, PhD. “What matters, arguably more, is how broadly it spreads, how deeply it’s integrated, and how wisely it’s cultivated.” That’s where the real story starts.

Matt Salois: Ideas are getting harder to find

At the Veterinary Innovation Summit, Salois, president of Veterinary Management Groups, shared the view that innovations without productivity are merely shiny objects. Sure, he’s an economist, and his profession views productivity as the engine of economic growth.

But he has a point. Things are changing at a pace that’s hard to keep up with, as more tools, startup companies, and activity are being generated all the time. But when you look at key metrics, you can make a case that innovation is actually slowing down.

For example, more U.S. patents are being granted today than at any time in the nation’s history. But truly unique and creative patents are at an all-time low. “The takeaway here is that [the number of] patents does not equal productivity, and innovation without creativity is just paperwork,” says Salois.

To clarify, he asks us to think of cultivating innovation like tending an orchard where “the low-hanging fruit is gone.” The most innovative breakthroughs have already been made, such as digital radiology or cloud-based practice management software.

In this orchard, Salois also says the “branches are tangled,” meaning the knowledge burden and complexity required to make the next improvement are much higher. And there are “fewer young apples,” as population growthlags and fewer new innovators enter the system. 

In short, “Today, each new apple we pluck from the innovation orchard is getting smaller, harder to reach and less transformative. Ideas are getting harder to find,” says Salois. 

Vance Crowe: New ideas sprout at the edge of chaos

At the KC Animal Health Summit, communication strategist Vance Crowe’s keynote focused on a highly salient theory.  “If you want to have a new idea, you must cross over into the unknown, into the chaos,” Crowe says. His point isn’t to dismiss the difficulty Salois describes, but instead to show where to look. In the “age of acceleration,” where change can occur in weeks, not years, chaos can be a deeply unnerving prospect.

But what exactly is chaos? Crowe says it is “all that is unknown” to us. And to willingly seek it out in pursuit of new ideas pits us against our own normative beliefs—the ideas we’ve developed and accepted that allow us to fit in with our greater community. Crowe associates these beliefs with the Overton Window.

The Overton Window is a framework for thinking about ideas considered suitable to society. Just inside the edge of the window are acceptable thoughts. The next layer consists of sensible and popular ideas. Right in the center is policy. But outside the window are radical and unthinkable ideas—the ones too jarring to even talk about.

“When something unexpected happens, something like COVID, something like Al, some large change to society,” explains Crowe, “the Overton Window opens, and now ideas that were maybe unthinkable have made it all the way into being policy.” Think, for example, about how wearing a mask in public became required when it once would have been unimaginable, or how today we might ask a computer to give us advice about a relationship issue with a friend or spouse.

That’s the power of chaos. That’s where new ideas come from. To put ourselves closer to chaos, Crowe suggests making ourselves uncomfortable. We can seek people out who aren’t afraid of having the “well-actually” conversations, ask adversaries to pressure-test our views, or even use a contemplative framework.

That is, try asking yourself this question, a favorite of Crowe’s: “What is one thing you believe that almost no one you know agrees with?” If you can name that one thing, you’re closer to chaos. If you can’t, it might be time to get more comfortable with crazy ideas.

Creativity: the solution to our constraints

This is where thinking creatively comes in—something we specialize in at S&A. Constraints don’t crush creativity. And radical ideas don’t polarize innovation. They catalyze it. Animal health, like any other industry, is swarming with its own pain points, from workforce shortages and burnout to access to care and affordability.

These issues sound daunting until we remember the other side of the equation. For every pain point, there is a potential innovation waiting to emerge. It’s a story we tell all the time. The hero must first undergo arduous challenges and difficulty before emerging victorious.

Ask yourself what new service, message, model, or workflow your brand can offer to reduce friction, provide value, or address a burden. Innovation itself is a choice, a decision about what to stop doing, where to focus attention, and how to prune the tree for more creative ideas.

But to do this, we must first make failure safe. As repeat veterinary startup founder Brock Weatherup said during the Veterinary Innovation Summit, “You have to create the opportunity where failure is there, that it’s rewarded. And when creativity is rewarded and people don’t feel the repercussions of failure, that’s how we create innovation.”

Make failure safe, make progress possible

Weatherup also reminds us that innovation “is not a solo sport.” In an industry built on care, progress comes from collaboration. No hero emerges from trial without the help of a trusted guide and a loyal companion.

Here’s where myth becomes method:

• The orchard is real. Easy gains are rare and today’s fruit requires more reach, more pruning and more patience.

• The edge of chaos is fertile. If we manage our attention and embrace disciplined debate, the unknown remains a powerful source of original ideas.

• Culture is the catalyst. Make failure safe, progress visible, and teamwork the norm, and you’ll reap the fruits of successful innovation.

  
  

In animal health, where our innovations benefit not only us but our precious companions, the trials are worth the pain. When failure is safe, possibilities are endless. And that’s how we reach our happily ever after, the one with the biggest, brightest, juiciest apples of innovation our industry has ever seen.

The end. 

This article appears in our Fall 2025 issue of Trendline: Innovation. Subscribe to get the next issue!