The problem is that in mature companies there is often no next version where you need pioneers. The next version is just an incremental change to the previous version. If the business is very management or sales driven then as engineer you are told exactly what to do in the shortest time. No room for or interest in pioneering work.
Corollary to this is when a business is so mature that they decide to no longer take risks (or higher risk) by designing a new product, or go after a new market or go for the next disruptive change that is valid. Instead they go after reliability based on exploiting a current product or resource or asset and optimize the product or process to extract out yet even more value. The latter is always viewed as safer and more predictable than the former. The truth is to recognize that that is what is happening and accepting that in the long run, the latter will not produce sustainable growth.
Even worse, sometimes it turns out that the business assumptions baked into the first version were completely wrong, and now have to be undone. The original pioneers can be the worst suited people for that work, if they are emotionally invested in the old approach.
I disagree - a bit. There is often a blue ocean that can be created in the industry or around it, and usually pioneers are part of a small group to see it first.
