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The Disruptive Innovation Checklist: Part 2
Champions, Independence and Rapid Learning
I recently published the first in a series of two articles where I distill my observations on my research on disruptive innovation into a Checklist. This Checklist includes seven rules to follow to establish a system that supports and protects innovation. This second edition completes the series.
Rule #5: Resistance to disruptive innovation will happen and many will seek to kill it — the CEO and the Board need to be its fiercest champions.
Be prepared to fight frequently to defend the need for disruptive innovation. Active advocacy by the CEO and the Board is essential. Success also requires that the Board and CEO understand the forces that will seek to kill off the innovation and actively take steps to build a protective support system around it.
This will not be a single battle where the enemy is vanquished at the first debate. Expect the debates to be continuous. .Everyone involved needs to understand the criticality of the innovation, what it is seeking to achieve and be prepared to advocate in support of it.
If you are setting out to potentially break the rules of what has been a previously successful business model, you will not be successful without CEO sponsorship and Board support at every step of the way. If your disruptive idea passes early market validation milestones and you go all in, the level of resistance will increase and only air-cover from the most senior people will protect the innovation. There are many case studies of the financial impact of organisations transitioning from old to new business models, and the short to medium term negative revenue impacts can be significant. Examples include Netflix’s shift from mailing disks to streaming, Adobe’s shift from boxed software to SaaS (Software as a Service), and Norwegian media group Schibsted offering free classifieds and undercutting their largest income stream.
I was talking with a global innovation leader recently who spoke to me about a recent project they led that was seeking to design a new business model in a mature and large global organisation. It was an exciting program with a bold ambition. Yet its set up was flawed from the outset. While the CEO was supportive, he was not prepared to actively…
