If not Disruption . . . then What?

In our earlier post, Be a Disrupter . . . or Not, we outlined why most leaders should not strive to become a disrupter in their industry. But where does that leave us? Accepting mediocrity? Hardly. It simply means that a leader should not overestimate the control and influence they have on a market. Dreaming to be the Next-Greatest-Thing is not the same as having The-Right-Conditions-and-Opportunity to be The-Next-Greatest-Thing.

I recently had a conversation with a business owner. This owner is brilliant. He has created products that did not exist in the industry before he created them. So is a a Disrupter? Yes . . . and no. He has a thriving company and continues to create new ground-breaking products that have not existed in the market and solve real problems. These products are slowly changing the industry itself. But these products remain a successful . . . but small niche within the market itself.

But . . .

Even with this great success, he will be the first to tell you that if there had not been an “Act of God,” at a critical moment in the company’s history, the company would not even exist today. It took an unlikely event, at the right moment, to get the industry to see the value of these new, unique, products. As we all have experienced, people, organizations, and even industries resist change. You can build a “better mousetrap” but if no one buys it then you are out of business. This company would have floundered, and failed, if not an event that made the industry adopt their products to deal with an emergency.

Disruption in a market is exceedingly rare. Most leaders simply do not have the leverage to shift an industry . . . unless the industry is ready for a change. Most truly innovative and remarkable new products and services fail to capture the market’s attention. These organizations typically run out of funds, or other necessities, before they can recreate the market.

Oh, it’s true that there are successful disrupters—even dramatically successful ones. That’s why we know the names of Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, to name three. These leaders and their organizations are the “stuff of legends,” but one must remember that they are outliers, oddities, famous . . . because of how rarely it happens . . . and not replicable models to follow—no matter what the motivational speakers and writers are selling. Most leaders need to focus on something more reliable and attainable . . . Innovation and Mastery.

Innovation and Mastery . . . An Alternative to Disruption

Here’s an example of the problem we talked about in the last post where gurus tout the goal of disruption: A 2012 Entrepreneur article stated it like this, “One of the most interesting, exciting and potentially lucrative things you can do as an entrepreneur is disrupt a big market. One of the smartest people I know puts it very simply: If you manage to disrupt a big market, business will follow. Blow things up and you’ll make money.” *

The problem is not ambition. In business, like in football, most leaders I meet are already trying to find ways to “capture the market” or “win a championship” . . . but most attempts to “blow things up,” only result in . . . a newly-formed, and oddly familiar, crater. Aiming to be a disruptor is more like throwing a Hail Mary than having a sound game plan . . . it may end in a remarkable win but it’s more likely to get knocked down or intercepted.

Most leaders biggest problem is not necessarily to be different, aim bigger, “try harder,” take more risks, or the like . . . as if they have failed in some fundamental lack of vision or ambition. Almost every ambitious leader I have met has a vision of what they want to achieve and would love to be the next disrupting force. The wisest of them understand the difficulties and barriers to that happening. Unless the leader is suffering from burnout, paralyzed by the trauma of leadership, or struggling personally, most do not rise to their positions with out a strong strain of ambition, a vision for what they want to accomplish, and the will to act.

To go back to the Huskers (see last post) . . . prior to the 1990s, the “Decade of Dominance,” many national pundits seemed to intimate that Tom Osborne’s I-formation offense was stuck in the past. Surely, the prudent thing to do would be to move toward a new offensive scheme (like Florida!) and not continue the past “three yards and a cloud of dust,” run-heavy, scheme. But close observers new that Osborne’s offensive scheme was not stagnant. Osborne continued to innovate—creating unparalleled versatility in the running game (remember the Bumerooski and Fumblerooskis?)—and focus on mastery of his offensive scheme that he believed would work best in that conference and in the midwestern climate.

The challenge is, “How do I continue to find room to be innovative within the framework of a focus on mastering our processes, services, and/or products?” It turns out, the skills needed are mostly about managing people—the human systems through which the leader will impede or succeed in the march toward the goal.

Next . . . we’ll talk about making a habit out of Innovation and Mastery.

*I’m sure (?) the author is not saying, “If you just ‘blow things up’ you will automatically be a success!” I have to believe, the motivation is to get entrepreneurs to move forward, dream, pursue their goals, and put in the hard work of building a successful enterprise. Now maybe espousing hyperbolic maxims is great for the entrepreneur who, I would argue, already is seeking to become a disrupter—win or lose. They are already encoded in their DNA to take risks. To go for the “big win.” But, at least here in the Midwest, some of us are skeptics of the benefits of “pie-in-the-sky” talk. We’d rather just get to work. Maybe it’s the farm mentality. The reality of entrepreneurial ventures is . . . some succeed, many do not. Few, very few, will become market disrupters.* (Just like a “5-Star recruit” who dominated the football field in high school, and may think they can repeat that dominance in college and eventually the NFL.)

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