Daniel Burrus — October 6, 2017 — October 6, 2017
CoxinhaFotos / Pixabay
A central component of the Anticipatory Organization model is disruption—more specifically, how Anticipatory Organizations and individuals can look at disruption and see enormous opportunity. Leveraging disruption could produce a revolutionary new product or service, lead to a significant improvement on an existing model or any number of advancements.
If you’re the kind of business leader who doesn’t shy away from opportunity, you may not have to wait for the next big disruption. You can create the disruption yourself and, in the process, do away with three of the most common reasons industries get stuck.
1. Stagnation
If you’re in an industry that is starting to feel stale, it might be a sign that a disruption is needed. You’ll know by the obvious lack of innovation and fresh ideas around you.
Cable television providers are an ideal example—it’s an industry dominated by companies that had simply divvied up territory and essentially provided identical services. This left them missing the next big thing.
Enter the disruption they missed: Netflix, Fire TV and other viewing options offered variety and choices. Cable subscriptions dropped as consumers chose what they were willing to pay to watch.
2. Customer Frustration
No matter if it’s cable customers paying for channels they didn’t even know existed—let alone watch—or students and parents fed up with the litany of problems with the public school system, the message is clear: Disgruntled customers mean an industry is ripe to be turned on its ear.
If you have dissatisfied customers, it’s time to look not just at how you operate but the state of your entire industry. After all, you don’t want to be left out of the next big thing the way cable stations, taxi companies, and nondigital cameras have been.
3. Slow-to-launch Products
Another sign that a disruption is needed comes from the painful disconnect between a product or service’s potential and its actual quality and preparedness.
By that, I mean an industry that offers enormous opportunities but whose products and services are still highly developmental and in need of improvement.
Drones are an ideal example—an industry predicted to grow to $ 1 billion by 2022 but saddled with sketchy machines, operating systems and power supplies.
Industries That Need Disruption
Want to know some specific industries that simply scream to be disrupted? It doesn’t take much legwork to uncover a few prime suspects. Here are several that are top of mind:
- Real estate. Not only are home shoppers weary of the traditional sales commission model, so, too, can they be frustrated by a system that places overriding focus on large metro areas (just try searching for “mountain homes” in Colorado). Opportunities include following the peer lending system taking hold in other areas as well as “niche” web-based databases.
- Construction. 3-D printing is becoming mainstream. Meanwhile, home building contractors still load up trucks at construction supply superstores, drive them to build sites and piece together homes at an agonizingly slow pace. Often, contractors don’t even waste time worrying about properly measured right angles and level floors. Go ahead and pick your opportunity for disruption.
- Education. No stop-the-presses news here: The American public education system is shackled with faltering funding mechanisms, not to mention being woefully out of date in curriculum development, particularly with regard to science and commerce. One opportunity: inventive new partnerships involving the public schools and private industry.
One such example is Skyline High School Computer Science and Technology Academy in Oakland, California. A joint venture between Silicon Valley software giant SAP, the Oakland Unified School District and Berkeley City College, students in the academy take courses that offer credits both at Skyline and at Berkeley City College free of charge. After they graduate, they have two years to complete their associate’s degree—also without cost.
These are just a few examples of industries where opportunities for disruption not only exist but where disruption is, in fact, a necessity.
Take a few minutes to consider your industry (or one that interests you)—is there a need for disruption and the game-changing opportunities that can result? For insights on how to do that, get The Anticipatory Organization from Amazon.com
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