Disruption is occurring in every area of the business world. Thanks in large part to new advances in technology, companies are doing things differently at every level. This will continue well into the future as new innovations continue to be revealed that help us do business more efficiently, effectively and with the potential to be more profitable.
This is a good thing for companies because it keeps them competitive and on the cutting edge. At the same time, it’s necessary for leaders to embrace, welcome and support disruption. But what is disruption? For general use, a dictionary would define it as an interruption; not necessarily a good thing. In our day-to-day lives, disrupting is synonymous with annoying. In the business world, however, the word has a positive connotation. In his 1997 book The Innovator’s Dilemma, Harvard professor Clayton Christensen coined the concept of disruptive innovation to refer to how successful companies don’t simply meet the existing needs of their customers, but also anticipate their needs in the future. According to Christensen, disruption has taken place when small companies with fewer resources than their mega-corporate counterparts resources have been able to displace the established system. How everyone works continues to change, and today’s leaders need to embrace that change or fall behind their competitors. In the financial industry, for example, blockchain and financial technology, or fintech, are transforming business models and economic models. Blockchain is now moving from what was not that long ago a nebulous concept to a widely accepted alternative method for making financial transactions. Numerous major companies are now actively leveraging it. Fintech, still an emerging concept, combines innovation and new technology like cryptocurrency and mobile banking to improve how financial activities take place. As digital has become mainstream in the business world, forward-thinking, disruptive leaders have found numerous ways to incorporate it into their daily activities. Data is everywhere, and we’ve found innovative ways to collect it, refine it and leverage it. It allows us to understand customer needs far more accurately than ever before. These developments are just a miniscule portion of what’s available to today’s truly disruptive leaders. As you read this, this is much more technology being developed that will change how we all work in the months and years ahead. It’s there for the taking. Leaders just need to be smart and savvy enough to appreciate the benefits and embrace new developments, or they will lose market share to others who do. It’s easy to stay on top of these developments. Everyone has access to a non-ending news cycle and can plan early to incorporate new methods of doing things that will improve how their companies operate. Watch, listen, learn, and adopt. Comments are closed.
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Robert MortonToronto Executive and Principal at RLM Consulting Archives
January 2020
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