I am now, have been and will be wrong

I’m not going to argue the point that the old guard is more interested in guarding the old ways than innovation. This is true. You keep your job by not rocking the boat, in most industries.

However, the old guard can give you insights on the problems and needs they were trying to solve with their solutions of 5/10/15 years ago. What you have to do, is the dirty work no one ever wants to do, go through the data again. Come up with a solution to the expressed need. If the answer is good. (not better, GOOD. Better != GOOD). Then you may have a solution to an existing need. Your advantage is the past 5 years of experience, innovation, change in the industry. The old solutions were good, but may no longer be so.

A brand new solution maybe be desired, but won’t be adopted until it’s worth the switching costs, the retraining, the new industry standards, etc. This is why new markets/industries can easily adopt the latest technologies, and old line industries are burdened with artifacts of age.