Leading Disruption in Today’s Markets

Many organisations want to cause disruptions in the market. Disruption and Innovation are crucial survival factors in our ever-changing, fast-paced world and naturally, these factors have become a great focus for companies. Yet the largest organisations with the most resources are struggling to disrupt. It seems large companies are better at classic models of innovation and enhancing products, but when it comes to disruption, they’re lagging behind.

For instance, Procter and Gamble is good at making a new version of Tide washing powder every year, and they can improve this powder way better than any start-up could, but when it comes to developing a new disruptive product, they aren’t as successful. Disruptions happen when you create something which makes something else obsolete while innovation is about doing the same thing but better. To read more about innovation and disruptions and how they differ, you can view my Power Read – Become More Innovative.

Now, why are large organisations struggling to cause disruptions?

Old Skills and Processes

Large organisations have accumulated old skills and processes that are no longer relevant. A company hires for the types of skills that they need at the moment. However, when it’s time for the company to pivot, especially in this fast-paced environment today, employees don’t quite have the skills to move into something entirely new.

For instance, a large car manufacturer like Volkswagen hires people who are car manufacturers. They have the skills in building and designing cars, and they’re great at doing that. However, creating more cars or better cars is not disruptive. Addressing the problem of mobility, which is the overarching problem of how the consumers get from point A to point B, will help to develop a new and disruptive solution. Essentially Volkswagen has staff who are skilled in car manufacturing, and they have processes in place for manufacturing. As a result, it’s harder for them to shift to a completely new solution for mobility that doesn’t involve manufacturing cars.