Conservatism varies tremendously by time and location, but I don't know if changing or improving is ever the point. Some combination of doing it the way it used to be done, hurting the right people, and supporting the existing social hierarchy go into the mix. There's also movements like libertarianism that tend to glom on to Conservatism, but done straight are a very different animal.

To be fair, progressive ideas can be bad sometimes too. Eugenics is a great example that all the cool forward-thinkers were into for a while. At least we try though...