Someone told me recently that they liked many of the ideas I share in these notes.

The implication being that I may be having some good ideas.

Sadly, I had to come clean.

VERY FEW of these are my ideas. They are examples of thinking that I admire and wish I could have the clarity and quality of thought to have come up with myself 😉

One such “culprit” is the ever-thought-provoking Tom Goodwin.

He writes “almost everything people wrote about Disruption was wrong, yes, including the late Clayton Christensen.”

• Uber didn’t disrupt Taxis by being cheaper, or having a lower cost base, it was a better user experience.
• Airbnb didn’t disrupt Hotels by being cheaper, it opened an adjacent market.
• The iPhone wasn’t a cheaper Laptop or Phone, it was a radically different thing.

Disruption was asking “What if the rules were different?“

Disruption is merely challenging assumptions that hold us back.

Disruption isn’t about technology at all. Disruption is about imagination, courage, audacity, empathy.

Of course, technology CAN help.

• Netflix thrived because streaming meant media could be on demand, it meant 160 countries could come on tap, with no new offices or staff.
• Shein thrives because rather than sending 40,000 SKUs a week to stores, it can take pictures of 40,000 and only make in volume what people like.

But OFTEN, it is nothing to do with technology, it is about THINKING and challenging preconceived notions or “rules”.

• Nespresso was an amazing disruption because it challenged the notion people would spend $50 a month on coffee at home.
• Dyson challenged the idea people cared enough to spend $500 on a vacuum.
• Nest challenged the idea that Thermostats could ever be bought by end users.

Progress is about the “parameters of possibility”, about regulation, consumer behavior, business models, but most of all about the assumptions that hold you back.

Disruption does not require us to do everything differently.

It’s the confidence to ensure your progress is shaped by the parameters that hold others back and that YOU can change to take you forward to a better place.

And technology is interesting, because it allows old “rules” to be broken.

• It can reconcile long assumed trade offs.
• It makes building something new easier than changing something old. 
• It makes agility as important as experience.
• It makes ambition more important than assets.

“End to End” business processes are equally interesting, as “full business cycle” thinking also allows old rules to be broken.

I would argue that Uber was more of a process redesign (putting the consumer at the center) than a tech innovation.

There are old assumptions and rules in all our processes that can be challenged.

Think about the biggest influence on, or lever that can be applied to, the processes that drive our core business outcomes;

• Revenue – DSO?
• Spend – DPO?
• Margin – COGS?
• Growth – Revenue per customer?
• Profitability – Productivity / Resources per process?

The biggest influences or levers are not always what we have been led to believe.

We need to root out the elements of received wisdom, of old rules and assumptions that CAN be challenged and changed to make progress!

Go on, try a bit of Disruption Thinking!

This may just be the essence of true Transformation in business.

You can read Tom Goodwin’s post on “Disruption and Breaking Rules” here . . .

Thanks for reading!