The Disruptor Breaks the Mold
“It is always from what we anticipate which leads to what we get. However, many anticipations are misaligned with realities, causing a surprise to what we get.”
Everyone in business understands the importance of staying relevant. Yet nearly half of the companies on the Fortune 500 list in 2000 are gone. The reality is too many organizations fall victim to a lack of diversity, and an inability to pivot their deliverable to follow the direction of the market.
It makes no difference what you sell or how you sell it; it only matters what customers buy and how they buy it. May sound simplistic. However, simplicity is where complexity is always defeated.
Many leaders still believe the industry they live in is safe from disruption. Today nearly every disrupted industry fell victim because their perceived value proposition was out of alignment with their customer desires, needs and expectations.
“The Innovator is more aligned with the customers’ expectations to a product or a service.”
Instead of recreating a deliverable to match the direction the market is going. Legacy organizations can become vigilant to save what they know. They double down on saving the past, they refuse to explore the unknown, and they surround themselves with the comfort of the past. Many declining industries are attempting to pull back their customer as to fit them into their old methods. Many still strive to delver the past to the future.
Innovative disruptions are about processes
The Innovators understand the customer is the master of the market and innovators go where the customers are going. It's there, they take many great relationships as they deliver a better experience. This better experience is nearly always about a better process in helping customers reach the outcomes they desire.
Diversification or pivoting are critical components to an industry’s longterm survival. Creating a new process requires the ability to pivot; it will take open minds, imaginations, and stands void of any desire to save any outdated processes.
The past has shown many who have not pivoted or diversified, and we have all witnessed those who have. Here’s a perfect example of two organizations in the same industry. One defeated, and one succeed beyond expectations.
The Defeated
Blockbuster- no vision, and no passion to go where the future was heading. They doubled down on pushing the deliverable they had, instead of creating what the market wanted. The market simply wanted a new means to the desired outcome of watching a movie at home. Blockbuster thought the market wanted their stores. Blockbuster thought the deliverable was about them.
This defines Blockbuster. “A Company goes obsolete when they focus on delivering the past to the future instead of delivering the future to the present.”
The Winner
Netflix some thought of as a competitor to Blockbuster both providing physical products which allowed their customers the ability to watch a movie at home. However, Netflix understood and followed where the customer was going. While Blockbuster insisted that their deliverable remain stores and physical tapes, or DVDs. Netflix understood the deliverable as providing the customers’ the ability to watch a movie at home. Netflix realized the customer’s desired outcome was viewing a movie in the comfort of their homes.
Netflix never saw Blockbuster as their competitor; they saw the Theater as the competitor, and they focused on doing whatever they could to make the experience of watching a movie at home increasingly better. Netflix business model started by mailing content to their customer's homes, they then provided downloading capabilities and soon after offered live streaming. Netflix did not stop at merely providing content they now create content.
Netflix is recognized as one of the great success stories in a business pivoting and diversifying. Netflix continues to destroy aspects of their deliverables which become obsolete to their customers. Yes, Netflix listens to customers.
So, whatever industry you call home the lesson from Netflix or the lesson from Blockbuster can provide a window to your industries future. Or, how you as a participant in your industry prevail during the coming disruption which is already scheduled by an innovator.
Netflix proved that if you focus on customer outcomes, you will be rewarded. Netflix also confirmed that if your organization can recreate your deliverable based on customers the customers will in-fact welcome your re-invention.
Imaging Channel there is no denying the similarities in the print equipment and its services deliverable. Just as the home entertainment industry realized, the print industry must recognize. The customer wants a desired outcome; the means to its achievement always changes. Most innovations are about a change in the processes to the desired outcome. Imaging Channel you must align your deliverable with the market realities and like Netflix you must be willing to destroy and recreate your old product-centric processes, to those of an innovative customer-centric nature.
The Innovation to the Print Equipment and Services industry will most definitely be a result of new processes designed to the realities of the market and based on data. I am quite excited to help in the architecture to innovative the deliverable of printers and their services.
In closing:
“Disruption is a result of changing the customer experience so drastically that the old-way becomes a customer nightmare.”
Ray Stasieczko
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Ray Stasieczko
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