Disruption used to be such an exciting word, at least in the business community. I almost always linked to the word innovation. When I would hear the term “disruptive innovation”, I would think of agile, cunning competitors working their way into a stale or sleepy market to blow the whole thing up and put it back together again to their best advantage. It was the stuff that grotesque fortunes were made of…. Netflix, Amazon, Uber, Lyft. You probably have your own favorites. I don’t know about you, but I usually thought to myself in retrospect, “that just seemed so simple”.
Before I ever saw that billions could be made in disruptive market plays, I learned that there is upside in disruption for those who are attentive and thoughtful planners – innovators. My earliest recollection of this insight was watching coach Dean Smith orchestrate the UNC basketball team in the early 70’s. Opposing coaches were bewildered as Coach Smith ensnared them in jumping, trapping defenses, or switching defensive schemes constantly to disrupt rhythm. Turnovers led to easy fast break points and occasionally breathtaking momentum swings. I was a Wake Forest fan at the time, so I did not like it one bit. I quickly jumped on the bandwagon after enrolling at Carolina, just marveling at Coach Smith’s read of the game’s flow and his competitor’s strengths and weaknesses. He had his teams prepared to take advantage of it. I am not blind to the fact that it happened to his teams as well over the years, but he was my first memory of someone so intentional and successful with it that he just seemed impossible to beat. Whether you believe that or not, I would be hard pressed to find anyone who did not style Dean Smith as an innovator.
Our business landscape is disrupted today, and it feels much more like stress and hardship. Thinking about it today, I imagine this is what it felt like for Blockbuster shareholders when Netflix blew into town. What is striking me about the business environment today is that we are experiencing a breadth and depth of disruption in business operations that we have never experienced before, but competitors are not forcing the action. There’s not that one person (or company) to vilify and accuse of cheating or some other character flaw. The coronavirus pandemic is on everyone. Some industries are more affected than others, but the disruption extends to big and small, service and manufacturing, profit and non-profit, all over the globe. It’s like we are at half-time and the game will be different when competitors charge back out on the floor, but no one knows exactly what the game will be like. In that sense, it is anyone’s game to win.
I wrote a few blogs ago about making your return your masterpiece. I am pulling so hard for the SBA and banks to smooth out PPP and flood the small business market with needed capital so businesses will be around to innovate. Many businesses in my area have already started experimenting with new approaches and business model. I am convinced that the best innovators in this disruption will take their businesses way beyond what they had before. I know it will not happen by accident.
I’ve been looking for resources to help those who maybe haven’t started an innovation process, or maybe sense the opportunity and have been toiling through some form of “writer’s block”. Ever the Dean Smith disciple now, I found many similarities to what I perceived as Dean Smith’s success factors in the book, Disrupt Yourself, by Whitney Johnson. Johnson speaks of risk-taking, playing to strengths, and embracing your constraints, among several other great observations about successful disruptive innovation. I would love to send you a summary of the book to shape and guide your thoughts. Just email us at admin@bizzics.com with the heading “Disrupt Yourself”.
Six months from now, I would like nothing better than for you to be saying to yourself “that seemed so simple”. I know for a fact that it is easier to score in the open court than packed into a half-court offense. Time to game-plan the heck out of this disruption.
