Welcome to 2017! A new year brings new opportunities and hopes. It also brings new challenges. Successful managers seize the possibilities for sure. But they also convert challenge into opportunities. Are you ready to transform your biggest challenges into opportunities in 2017?
The challenge of disruptive forces
We are living in the age of disruption. Today, more disruptive forces are challenging businesses more often. Earlier, I had written about the powerful forces that are bringing the age of disruption to your doorstep. As the forces driving disruption are here to stay, the challenges of disruption are also here to stay. Disruption will soon touch your business if they are not already challenging you.
Disruption Management Imperative
I have studied disruption across dozens of industries and hundreds of companies. My research has taught me one lesson that all managers should apply. Businesses need to build capabilities in managing disruption.
Companies build capabilities just as you and I build skills. We do so with repetition, knowledge and trial and error. The same applies to companies too.
But when it comes to disruption management there is a significant problem. Disruption is not something that companies face on a daily basis. As a result, managers are often unprepared for disruptive events. This is the reason why firms do not build capabilities in disruption management. So what are you to do?
Convert this challenge into an opportunity
In the absence of prior experience in disruption, your firm can start by absorbing new knowledge on disruption. The good news is that scholars have been studying disruption for over 80 years. As a result, we know a lot about it.
Knowledge is one path for mastering disruption. I have learned about disruption through direct experience as well as research. By managing a business going through a major disruptive event, I got a direct experience of disruption. I also studied disruption for over a decade. Looking back, I learned more from my research on disruption than from my experience in managing a business through a disruption. This is why I have spent a significant time codifying knowledge on disruption. This will help managers across companies in dealing with disruption they will face.
Mastering Disruption: 12 Episodes on Disruption
We just finished a season of our podcast that focused on disruption. That is an excellent place to start your journey on disruption. Even if you know a lot and have been an avid reader of disruption, you will find many new insights. We covered a lot of ground in this season on Mastering Disruption.
A brief description of each episode is as follows
Episode 1: Debunking Disruption Myths
What is disruption? How is it related to disruptive innovations? Do all disruptive innovations lead to disruption? Is this a new phenomenon that became prevalent in the recent years?
Learn the answers to these questions and more.
Episode 2: The Disruption of Kodak
Did Kodak fail because it couldn’t innovate? Was it unable to develop digital imaging technology? Many people think so, but that is not true.
The story of Kodak has several twists and turns and gives you an in-depth insight into the process of disruption. Learn more here.
Episode 3: Disruption and Innovation
Why do firms get disrupted? What is the role of innovation and transformation in the disruption of firms? Where does transformation fit into this picture?
Learn the relation among disruption, innovation and transformation with an easy to understand analogy. Some cases of disruption are also discussed.
Episode 4: Informative Barriers to Innovation
What prevents companies from innovating? This episode takes you behind the informative obstacles to innovation that firms often face. What makes them challenging and how to overcome those challenges?
Learn the answers to these questions and more.
Episode 5: Normative Barriers to Innovation
Can norms become barriers to innovation? Yes, they can and often do. This episode explains how that happens and how firms have failed by following the norms that prevent innovation. Learn more here.
Episode 6: Cognitive Barriers to Innovation
Psychological traps can and often become barriers to innovation. The same mental traps that make people fall prey to tricks makes firms fall prey to tricks. As a result, businesses fail to innovate and die. Learn fascinating details on cognitive barriers to innovation.
Episode 7: The Dark Side of Innovation I
Listen to a summary of my book The Dark Side of Innovation in two episodes. I termed profit destroying changes as the Dark Side of Innovation in my book. It often leads to disruption of firms. This episode shares some hair-raising tales of disruption due to profit destroying innovations.
Episode 8: The Dark Side of Innovation II
This episode is the second part of the audio review. This episode shares how to deal with the dark side of innovation. How to not get disrupted?
Episode 9: Disruptive Business Models
This episode will help you understand disruption by business model innovation. Why do some new business models disrupt whereas others do not? Can you predict which models will become disruptive and which won’t? These are the questions we discuss in this episode of the podcast.
Episode 10: Winning Against Disruption
Not all firms that face disruption get disrupted. How do some businesses win against disruption? Is there a method that you can follow to deal with disruptive threats? This episode shares a few examples of firms that won against disruption. Learn their secret.
Episode 11: Predicting Disruption
In this age of disruption, you must build the capability of managing disruptive forces. To do that an essential skill you will need is the ability to predict disruption. This episode shares a powerful cascading change model to predict disruption. Find out how to apply this model to any industry and predict disruption.
Episode 12: Becoming a Successful Disruptor – Season Finale
How do successful disruptors succeed? Is there a method to their success? Learn from the stories of many disrupters in this episode. Also find out four paths of becoming a disruptor.
Your Opportunity
Although disruptive forces are significant challenges facing every industry, they also provide you an opportunity. You have the chance to convert these challenges into opportunities.
Identify, predict and respond to such disruptive events in a proactive manner, and you can create a massive impact on your business and organization.
Start your journey to mastering disruption today.
Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, or off-topic. If in doubt, read my Comments Policy.