Improvement is driven by an unproven instinct that things either could be better and this is tractable, or by having seen a superior situation and desiring to catch up.

For either case it is natural that incremental improvement is going to seem a more tractable goal than razing the current system and starting from first principles. Usually the urge to build upon what already works is a good one, if something has proven its worth it would be nonsensical to throw it out.

There are however problems where, if one wants to take the next step, a new method is required. If the goal was to get to the moon a determined man may climb the tallest mountain on Earth, but to really achieve the goal he will have to descend and build a rocket. This is the revolution in approach which is occasionally necessary; knowing when this is the case is what distinguishes the good companies from the great, as well as the unproductive extremists from the true progressives.