When is the best time for disruption? Simply NOW!
All brands in the 21st Century, come to a point where they are vulnerable to competitors and new fast-paced players to turn around the industry. We can look at Nokia, Kodak and Blackberry to name a few that have failed to re-shape and successfully maintain in the 21st Century. If you ask their management today about “disruptive creativity”, they know what you are talking about.
Google figured it out: they are disrupting their own core business and they understand that the “era of search” as we used to know it, is coming to an end, and, that they are vulnerable for “disruption”. They have successfully been dividing their business and industries into various fields for some time now (Calico, Nest Labs, Google X, Google Fiber and numerous others through Google Capital and Google Ventures) and they continue to invest and have moved from Google to “ALPHABET”. Only one way to make it more difficult for disruptors. What do you need to consider today, if you would like to run a successful company in the future?
6 STEPS for Disrupting your Brand / Company / Industry:
- Go with Simplicity – the most complex thing in the 21st Century is Simplicity. You need to radically reduce complexity
- Cut your prices to 1/10, or even more, 10% reductions won’t help. In general, a disruption means something 10 times different than in the “old” world.
- Kill off all customer pains (yes all!). You need to know whom you are disrupting for. The customer disrupts industries, not technologies. Technology is only the tool to satisfy customer needs.
- Connect & Communicate. Train your organization on connection (talk WITH people instead of just TO people).
- Build Trust . Make it easy to trust your organization. Make telling the truth easier than lying. How will that impact your culture and industry? Think about Volkswagen is feeling about this now.
- Target Transparency. Foster full transparency to stakeholder, clients and partners.
6 TAKE-AWAYS FROM THE BUSINESS DISRUPTION EXPERTS ON WHEN TO DISRUPT YOUR COMPANY / INDUSTRY?
- NOW!
- When you have successfully build a multi-brand strategy or/and have various revenue streams (which makes it easier to take “small bets”)
- When you have CORE business coming in from various services in your industry
- When you are successfully providing services growing out of being “just” a products company or vice versa
- When you (still) make enough money to stand through times of change and restructuration and you have the cash to accept failures and to changes. Which also means you have stamina and knowledge to load a new brand with values and credibility.
- When your brand is in a position that it can be disrupted. What does that mean? – Totally new players are entering the market, you are making money of physical object, there are ways to digitize some of the things you do – so basically all.. Industries still to come are Insurances, Banking, Oil, Automotive (e.g. Volkswagen in the automotive being in the wrong spot towards Google, Apple or Tesla)