Using Disruption

Change can be good. If you are paying attention, change can be really good. You have to be paying attention to the changes in the environment surrounding your business.

Harvard Business School has an interesting article on using disruptions in
your businesses environment to your advantage. If you are smart you can utilize the changing business environment to innovate.

Some key areas to keep an eye on are technology, business models, industry
dynamics, Globalization, off shoring, and regulatory (or macro economic)
changes.

What are some of the disruptive changes in your industry that might serve as
the source of innovation for you and your
company?

Technology: What are the key emerging
technologies, and how are they being used inside and outside your industry,
company, and region to create proprietary advantage?

Business
Models: Are there new business models emerging that you can adopt or
adapt to deliver radical improvements in the way you and others do business?
Will these improvements drive profitable growth by creating proprietary
advantages in the way you do business? Can you expand not just your "share of
market" but also your "share of wallet" by adding new business models—for
example, if you currently have a product business, can you add information,
services, or solutions? Can you expand into adjacent businesses by either taking
over activities that used to be done by someone else in your industry, expanding
into new markets, or adding new products?

Industry
Dynamics: Are there fragmented industries where significant value can
be delivered through consolidation? Are there shifts in power (e.g., entry or
exit of a key player or consolidation of several players) that threaten your
existing position or create opportunities to partner in your existing business
or enter a new one?

Globalization: What’s happening in
another part of the world that you could adopt or adapt in your environment?
What are the proprietary advantages that you have based on your access to
people, information, materials, or capital? Are new markets or businesses
emerging in other parts of the world that create opportunities or
threats?

Offshoring and Outsourcing: Are there
opportunities to create value by outsourcing or offshoring activities that you
currently perform inside your organization? Are there activities that you
currently source from outside that you should be doing inside to create
proprietary advantage?

Regulatory, Macroeconomic,
Political, Societal: Are there impending (or early) shifts in regulation,
political power, or society that threaten to disrupt entrenched power bases and
provide opportunities for new entrants?

Jumpstarting Innovation: Using
Disruption to Your Advantage  HBS Working Knowledge.

Often, people focus internally at their company. Big companies usually have an issue with this. It seems that the larger a company gets, the more internally focused the company becomes. People focus so much on the processes, operations, and politics inside the company that a smaller and smaller percent of peoples’ time is spent actually looking outside the company at the changing dynamics happening around them. Be sure to spend time paying attention to the world outside your company, if you pay attention, it will lead you to innovative advantages driven by the dynamic world.