< PreviousPART VI.EXECUTE YOU DISCOVERED IT . YOU BUILT IT . NOW OWN THE MARKET .C ONTRARY TO popular belief, and as obvious as this sounds, there are two reasons why individuals and organisations get disrupted. Firstly, there are the things that disrupt you because you never saw them coming. In short they blind-sided you and, if you have them, your foresight teams. Secondly, there are the things that disrupt you because even though you saw them emerging and then ascending you never took the necessary actions to counter them. And while the markets and stakeholders will sometimes forgive executives for the former, they rarely forgive them for the latter - especially in a world where disruption is an ever present stalking horse. Needless to say, disrupting a competitor, an industry, or even a country, is complex, but while many people often like to think of disruption as a singular event it’s actually a series of events that, in the majority of cases, have clearly identifiable milestones and markers that we can monitor and track. However, while everyone agrees that disruption has always been with us and that it can take many forms, from the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs to the emergence of Netflix who wiped out the video-saurs, one thing that many people still struggle to understand is how the nature of the animal’s changed over time and how it will continue to evolve in the future. Often the reason for this is because sometimes they’re looking for disruption in the wrong places, trying to predict it based on historical perspectives, and sometimes it’s just because they haven’t been exposed to it before. And as for those among you who believe that the majority of disruptions are behind us I can assure you they aren’t, and trust me when I say you haven’t seen anything yet. MAPPING THE DISRUPTION LABYRINTH The process of disrupting anything, whether it be a competitor, an industry, or even perhaps a country, is generally so complex it’s positively labyrinthine. Like all of us though I’ve lived through many disruptive events and it’s these experiences and the impact they had, on enterprises and workforces alike, that drove me to map the labyrinthine-like process of disruption so that companies could understand it, navigate it, use it to their advantage, and ultimately come to 343311institute.com EXPLORE MORE BOOK AN EXPERT CALLterms with a world that operates using a new rule book and that no longer behaves like it used to. As highlighted in earlier chapters, irrespective of how fast disruption seems to materialise it isn’t a single event - it’s a complex series of events that, in the majority of cases, have clearly identifiable milestones and markers that we can monitor and track, and it’s these events that will be the focus of at least part of your discovery process and that will help the vigilant among you identify the next disruptors and disruptions long before they have a chance to wreak their havoc on our companies. Similarly, these events, and how they combine and the timings of their combinations, also help explain why only a fraction of companies ever make it through the labyrinth to claim cult disruptor status, so let’s dive in and have a look at them. Notes: 344311institute.comMATTHEW GRIFFIN 311INSTITUTE.com “ DISRUPTION ISN’T A SINGLE EVENT . IT’S A COMPLEX SERIES OF EVENTS WITH CLEARLY IDENTIFIABLE MILESTONES & MARKERS . ” - Matthew Griffin, 311 InstituteARTIFICIALINTELLIGENCE BLOCKCHAIN QUANTUM ROBOTICS SYNTHETICBIOLOGY 3DPRINTING CULTURE INNOVATION EXECUTION SCALING VISION VIRTUALREALITY EXPONENTIAL ADOPTION EXPONENTIAL TE C HNOLOGY E X P O N E N T I A L ENTERPRISE TIME A D O P T I O N ACCESSABILITY : ADOPTABILITY : AFFORDABILITY CULTURAL ALIGNMENT : CULTURAL BIAS : GEOPOLITICS LIABILITY : NETWORK EFFECTS : STANDARDS : REGULATIONS THE DISRUPTION TRIANGLE The likelihood that a new product or service an enterprise or industry, can be assessed by its progress against three main axes - namely the Exponential Enterprise axis, the Exponential Technologies axis, and finally the Exponential Adoption axis, all of which are intrinsically inter-connected with one another.enterprise will often be able to change the attitudes and opinions of those who fall within their sphere of influence it has to be argued that true change within an enterprise must be inspired and promoted from the top down. Over the past decade I’ve made it my mission to understand what sets enterprises that achieve cult disruptor status, as well as fabled Unicorn status, apart from the rest of the pack and frankly it’s a myth that a company’s ability to disrupt itself or a market is based on its ability to outperform its competitors in just one single area. In my estimation it’s their ability to outperform them in over thirty different areas, often simultaneously, that makes the difference. From the way they build and communicate their culture, values, and visions, to the way they identify valuable problems worth solving and develop their products, ecosystems, and go to markets, and much more, it all counts. In short, and to be crystal clear, it’s not any one thing, it’s many, and that’s the reality that anyone wanting to build an Exponential Enterprise has to contend with - you’re either all in or you might as well go home, anything less and you’ll be increasing your likelihood of failure. Furthermore, it’s not simply enough to be moderately better than your competitors, whoever they are and whatever industry they hail from, you have to outpace, out perform, and out think them all in almost every one of these areas. Now we’ve covered the basics let’s dive in and have a look at what makes these serial disruptors we’re all fond of so special. In order to make it easier to digest I’m going to divide the DNA of an Exponential Enterprise into five foundations. In order these are Vision, Culture, Discovery, Prototyping, and Execution, and within each of these individual foundations there are at least six main areas that, when performed well and combined, will move the dial in the company’s favour. Firstly comes their Vision, something that conveys a huge amount of information about their over arching purpose and THE THREE AXES OF DISRUPTION. In my experience the likelihood that a new concept will disrupt a market can be assessed by its progress against three main axes as shown in the diagram on the previous page - namely the Exponential Enterprise axis, the Exponential Technologies axis, and finally the Exponential Adoption axis, all of which are intrinsically linked with one another. EXPONENTIAL ENTERPRISE If you’re one of those individuals who doesn’t want to change the world, and let’s face it, not everyone does, and that’s fine, then it’s unlikely you ever will - at least on purpose. But, if you feel that it’s your calling and you can’t think of anything else then with the right approach and support you may well just pull it off - never say never, especially in a world where it’s easier than ever before for one individual or one company to impact and influence the lives of billions of people. However, while a determined rebel unit with a disruptive mindset within an 347311institute.comculture, and ultimately acts as their North Star. Visions and vision statements are normally the aggregated result of a company’s ambition and purpose, their discovery and due diligence process, their internal and external deliberations, their framing and the time frame they’re working within, and their view of the intersecting trends that they believe will help them achieve their goals. Generally speaking many of the enterprises that have the greatest impact on the world today and the ones with the greatest disruptive potential are the ones that have bold and ambitious visions with grand aims that, in the words of Elon Musk, get people excited about waking up every morning and feeling inspired by the work they do. Secondly, and by far the most important of all the five foundations is Culture, which is, among other things, the aggregated result of structural and behavioural company alignment, authentic, inspirational leadership, honest communication, and, again, the company’s vision. We are continuously reminded about the power of culture and it’s power to help companies overcome all manner of obstacles. But while creating a winning culture can take years to build and is arguably one of the hardest things for any leadership team to accomplish if you aren’t vigilant it can be torn apart in just months. Furthermore, from a disruptors perspective at least, I like many people have lost count of the number of times I’ve heard stories about how a company’s corporate immune system was responsible for killing the latest innovative concepts - either because they were disruptive to the company’s core business, which is obviously laughable under the circumstances, or because of some other political motivation. Thirdly comes one of the most exciting foundations, in my opinion at least, Discovery, which is the aggregated result of internal and external conversations, collaborations, and partnerships, exploration, envisioning, and observation, and much more. This foundation is also often the natural home of the majority of a company’s entrepreneurs, rebels, and visionaries - the teams of individuals who all too often want to rip up the rule books, go above and beyond, and disrupt the status quo. And as the rate of disruption accelerates, and as more enterprises feel the effects Notes: 348311institute.comof disruption on their balance sheets it’s no surprise that over the past number of years many of the teams in this space have been the beneficiaries of significant uplifts in funding and new programs as the companies work hard to improve their competitiveness, and defend and extend their consumer bases. All that said, however, it obviously goes without saying that new funding and programs by themselves can’t be counted on as magic bullets that guarantee success. Again, it’s not one thing, it’s many things working in harmony, which, neatly brings me back to the importance of having the right culture and environment. Fourthly we have the Prototyping foundation, where companies begin to build products that address the problems and opportunities uncovered during the Discovery foundation. This foundation is the aggregated result of conversations, collaboration, and partnerships, experiential and design thinking, ideation and problem solving, to name but a few. One of the most understated areas of this foundation though is the use of beta consumers and, where appropriate, the importance of the investors black books - both of which help companies secure early testers and consumers that eventually hopefully convert into paying consumers and references, with the added benefit that, with the right management these activities and consumers will help generate hype around the products that then, in some cases, propel them into the hands of millions of consumers. Fifthly, and by no means least is the Execution foundation that, when done right, which is obviously harder said than done, ensures your amazing new product doesn’t get left on the metaphorical shop shelf to die. The aggregated result of everything from ensuring the right balance of consumer value and the right business model and go to market strategy this is where many companies ambitions to disrupt markets fail. As they say - everyone has a plan until they’re punched in the face, or in company speak everyone has a plan until it meets reality. However, for the lucky companies that do make it past this last hurdle to disrupt a market - whether they’re lucky by design or by fluke - this is the stage where all their hard work, everything I’ve discussed, albeit lightly so far, pays off. This is also the point at which the incumbents in a market realise that a disruptor has just parked their UFO Notes: 349311institute.comNext >