12/13/09

Want some Change ? Be Disruptive !

Some managers believe there is no way to guide the innovation journey, because innovation is just random and unpredictable. If innovation is indeed a black box, the best company can do is let a thousand flowers bloom, in the hope that one of them sprouts into a substantial growth business. This is a bit like releasing thousands of monkeys into a room full of word processor end hoping they will produce Shakespeare….

Disruptive ideas provide management alternatives that, if spread, can completely transform the way the organisation works without the need for a massive ‘change management programme’. Each of them in its own right has the potential to create significant change, but the compound benefit of a few of them is a real engine of change and business transformation.

Disruptive Ideas:

  • are simple
  • have a total disproportion between their simplicity and the significant impact in the life of organizations

  • can be implemented now

  • have zero cost or are cheap to implement

  • are most likely to be contrarian

  • are most likely to be counterintuitive
  • have a high risk of being trivialised or dismissed

  • can spread virally very easily, as soon as some people implement them

As a conclusion, I would add the following principle : Good Enough can be Great ! Disruptors win by playing the innovation game differently. Disruption are all about trade-offs…. Think about it !


Sources :
- Leandro Herrero, 2008
- Innovator’s Guide to Growth, Putting Disruptive Innovation to work (ScottD. Anthony, Mark W. Jonhson, Josef V. Sinfield, Elisabeth J. Altman)
- Image Flickr, seretuaccidente

1 comment:

Leandro Herrero said...

Hi Emmanuelle. Good to hear about your interest in my ‘Disruptive Ideas’. It would be nice to know more about your work in France ! How much of a disruptive change/coms manager are you ?? (leandro-herrero@thechalfontproject.com