What would force us to change or radically adjust our existing business trajectory? Can we afford to take another period of uncertainty, what are the risks? Does it make sense to alter our existing Business Models?
At some time it is absolutely right for the C-level to ask! It cuts to the core of the Innovator’s Dilemma applied to organizational transformation.
A terrific book, an Innovation foundational one, was “The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail,” first published in 1997. It is most probably the best-known work of the Harvard professor and businessman Clayton Christensen. It describes how large incumbent companies lose market share by listening to their customers and providing what appears to be the highest-value products, but new companies that serve low-value customers with poorly developed technology can improve that technology incrementally until it is good enough to quickly take market share from established business (source Wikipedia). Today’ it is so different, anyone can take market share through applying technology thoughtfully.
This concept today faces far more “dilemmas” that can be more widely applied as the “disruptor” has even more “disrupting tools” at their disposal as they search and connect all the “dots” of opportunity that those incumbents will struggle to adopt though legacy or speed of market reaction. “Higher value” needs to be replaced with “Greatest Connecting Value”.
