Somehow my career worked out that I usually joined organizations when they were at a critical inflection point in their evolution. This is not something I planned early on, but given I clumsily fell into the first digital marketing revolution in the mid-’90s, that energy of feeling the gravity change on an industry excited me. I quickly learned that people will protect the old way of doing things with all of their might - the specter of change scares most folks and usually, subconsciously they’ll push against the waves of change. I understand that body language from the sense that it is not typically malicious but can often be blind to the train of disruption coming down the tracks and before they see it, it’s too late. The pioneers are usually the ones that get shot in the back as the old saying goes, with someone coming up behind them fast to claim the flag of disruption. The visionaries are the ones that are constantly fighting against the resistance, having to sell the vision, the dream and get people and investors to come along for the ride.
Almost every industry and product is ripe for disruption. We usually tend to think of the big industries like automotive, electronics, or others - but even the smallest, rote products are being thought of differently - think of the toothbrush and toothpaste - quip came into that category with a newly designed electric brush and a DTC model that changed the razor/razor blade model for the category. Harry’s for shaving, Stance for socks and many more. These companies all focused on breaking the status quo in a product or category with newly designed business models, attention to design thinking and a better customer experience. And yes, while companies like Tesla reinvent entire industries, I like to focus on everyday essentials that are being re-thought with leaders that are determined to transform.
The effort in transforming is often almost impossible in an established brand or company and definitely takes longer to happen as the winds of resistance blow harder. Smart companies create innovative sandboxes or business models that align next to the core business to act both as a fearless area of innovation and have the ability to slowly transform the main-line business with thinking and approaches born in the new business. This is why Tesla can move faster than Ford or Acorn can move faster than Schwab - the innovation model is built differently - how it thinks, makes money and most importantly its cost model. A legacy business has a cost model that needs to be supported and everything the people in that business do is to support that cost model versus think about how to be more innovative. Often, the best intentions will be put forth in legacy businesses, but the behavior will always come back to the cost model and the balance sheet and that is how innovation initiatives are scrapped. In innovation models, the expectation is investment, R&D, trying new things and finding new revenue models - therefore, while of course, the goal would be to drive revenue - the ultimate outcome is to prepare the business for the future.