Companies (and workers) face 5 questions COVID:
- When should they (you) self-disrupt?
- How quickly should they (you) self-disrupt?
- How should they (you) self-disrupt?
- What’s their (your) final destination?
- How are they (you) going to monetize (make money)?
All companies are searching for the next killer business model, app, platform, product, or idea. It’s too late when there’s simply not enough products in the pipeline to create a sustainable competitive advantage. Many companies learned this lesson the hard way. When products go stale, stagnation and revenue loss are not far behind. Or, the wake-up call to change the existing product paradigm may come from a competitor or new technology.
When the wake-up sounds to self-disrupt, it results in management and company panic. Why? Well, killer ideas can be copied quickly. Legal protections last only so long before someone copies or enhances an existing product or service. In information intensive companies such as consultancies, the greatest ideas can be replicated in months. So history shows: Today’s hot idea is tomorrow’s fad and the next day’s has-been company.
For example, General Electric (GE) had a horrible 10 years. Dozen or so years ago, it was the most valuable company in the world. It had the best management and training systems. It had the best culture of a large organization. It could do no wrong. But, Disruption Rules. It starting making bad business decisions based on old assumptions. It did not adapt. In the last 10 years, its market capitalization has gone down about 90% and many see the company as an also-ran. GE wants to operate as a software startup. So, how do you take a mega-company and make it into an adaptive, lean, agile, and mean startup? Good luck with that!
Work Lesson Earned: Legacy companies are challenged with internal impediments, such static cultures, status quo thinking, dated technologies, legacy processes, and antiquated management systems. The systems have been around a long time and worked very well. These systems promoted and reinforced the status quo. Now COVID.