Breaking rules
I started off writing about disruptive ideas - it is still in the draft mode. I chanced upon this article by Mike, Chief Strategy Officer at N2growth. How many times in your career have you heard “This is the way it has always been done”? If your organization has this culture, you are doomed to remain in the “also-ran club”.
His questions drive home the point: why didn’t IBM see Dell and Gateway? How did the brick and mortar book stores let Amazon get the jump on them? and so on. These organizations were leaders at that time. And they became complacent. He also provides the answer - they became too focused with incremental gains through process improvements that they did not see the innovators until they were too late.
I think size of these organizations also played a crucial role. A smaller organization can quickly react to changing market conditions. The same cannot be said of a larger organization. It is quite surprising that successful organizations let go of the very attributes that made them successful in the first place.
I keep saying this to small business owners, you cannot innovate until you break rules. Question the premise that is a given in your industry. Change the rules of the game and you will have found your niche. Else you will find yourself competing just on price. Your organization is doomed the day that happens.
