Understand Disruptors That Help You Lead In a Post-Pandemic World

As a leader you must understand the characteristics of disruptors. Here are some important thought- leader ideas from Deliberate Disruption for Transformational Growth by Michael E. Raynor.

....three general principles separate real disruptors from apparent ones. First, real
disruptors offer “a new business model that defines a different frontier.” Second, usually
even when a company defines a “new frontier,” it isn’t doing anything disruptive, since
that would call for some new “technology or set of processes” to set it apart. Third, to
force their new frontiers to grow, disruptors must offer equal or better performance at
prices incumbents can’t match.

When established firms try to innovate, they often borrow practices that work for startup
firms. They hold “idea hunts,” generate lots of concepts and fund the promising ones.
And they often fail to innovate because they miss a crucial point: No matter how you
apply disruption (to one idea, to a portfolio), it forces you to abandon your existing ways
of thinking about innovation. Applying disruption in an incumbent industry is like trying
to go back to gills after your species develops lungs. It doesn’t work.
Emerging firms often articulate their development processes in adaptive terms. They test
various permutations, pick one that works and keep it, following the “variation-selection -retention
model.” When venture capitalists invest in an emerging firm, they want to build
a business profitable enough to sell. Their criterion is “will this make money?” In an
established firm, the criteria are more complex. Such firms aren’t just economic entities;
they are “political, social organisms.” Instead of evaluating ideas based only on finances,
people invest their reputations and status, so incumbents are much more risk averse.

Don’t flood your firm with new ideas; just pursue new concepts
within the context of a defined, profitable future. Often ideas have been circulating in your
firm, unexplored, for years. Shape them into more specific, focused possibilities. Instead
of trying to “fail fast,” try to “learn fast” and apply the lessons to your business. Instead
of testing new ideas at random, articulate your model clearly so you develop innovations
in a framework where they can succeed.