Disruption By Design

We hear of so many organisations and industries being disrupted, and you might wonder if your industry is next – and whether you can do anything about it.

The answer is yes – if you’re willing to take action now, instead of waiting until it’s too late.

Clay Christensen coined the phrase “disruptive innovation”, but many people forget about the “innovation” part of that phrase. In a fast-changing world, the people who take action are the innovators, and those who don’t are the disrupted.

This is the key difference between disruption and innovation: Disruption is when change happens to you, innovation is when you create change yourself.

It’s the difference between being reactive rather than being proactive, being at the mercy of others instead of being in control, and being a victim instead of being a leader.

Innovation is disruption, but with you in control. In other words, it’s disruption by design. This book describes the three steps in designing your own path for an uncertain future:

1. Use the skill of foresight to explore the external environment and understand it more clearly.
2. Leverage your talent: the people you enlist to bring along for the journey.
3. Take the right action, so you can make progress in a constantly-changing landscape.