Notes from the LinkedIn "Disrupting Yourself" course
Notes from the LinkedIn "Disrupting Yourself" course presented by Whitney Johnson:
Disruptive innovation is a term coined by Clayton Christensen to describe a low-end or new market innovation that eventually upends an industry.
The disruptors, think Amazon in the 1990s, secure a foothold at the low end of the market, and then in the pursuit of profit, gradually produce higher performance, higher margin products. Established competitors - Barnes and Noble, Borders - could aggressively counter an attack by a low-end disruptor, but they don't because it doesn't make financial sense to defend their least profitable products when they themselves could move up-market.
Seven basic rules of Disruptive Innovation -
* Take the right risks - Disruptors look at what their competitors are not doing.
* Play to your distinctive strengths - get the skills that you need to do your job, and then focus on your distinctive strengths. 2 questions to ask to know your strengths -
>> What is something that someone says to you frequently that you do very, very well, and you fact dismiss them?
>> What makes you feel powerful?
* Embrace constraints - think about how constraints, together with your distinctive strengths, can become a tool of creation. Years of reciting rhymes, of creating cartoons, of leveraging what Theodor Geisel did uniquely well, prepared Geisel a.k.a Dr. Seuss (he was not a real doctor and he had no children) to reinvent children's literature with his "The Cat in the Hat". In the book, he used only 225 unique words from a first-grade vocabulary list provided by William Spaulding, the head of Houghton Mifflin's education division, who was eager to find a way to get more kids to read.
* Battle entitlement - Disruption comes because we hunger for a better life. From 1995 to 2005, 52% of Silicon Valley start ups were founded by immigrants. When we're satiated, we're not compelled to innovate and disrupt. Staying open to great ideas, no matter where they come from, is an antidote to entitled thinking.
* Step back, or sideways, in order to grow - Netflix started out as a door-to-door DVD rental service but it is an Emmy Award winning content and streaming company today.
* Fail - Daring to disrupt is daring to fail.
* Let your strategy emerge - We all like to make plans for the future, but being a disruptor requires that we can't see the end from the beginning. What the brain craves, even requires, is a delicious dopamine of the unpredictable.
The most important metric of success is actually how many times we show up. Show up, and keep showing up.
Disruptive innovation is a term coined by Clayton Christensen to describe a low-end or new market innovation that eventually upends an industry.
The disruptors, think Amazon in the 1990s, secure a foothold at the low end of the market, and then in the pursuit of profit, gradually produce higher performance, higher margin products. Established competitors - Barnes and Noble, Borders - could aggressively counter an attack by a low-end disruptor, but they don't because it doesn't make financial sense to defend their least profitable products when they themselves could move up-market.
Seven basic rules of Disruptive Innovation -
* Take the right risks - Disruptors look at what their competitors are not doing.
* Play to your distinctive strengths - get the skills that you need to do your job, and then focus on your distinctive strengths. 2 questions to ask to know your strengths -
>> What is something that someone says to you frequently that you do very, very well, and you fact dismiss them?
>> What makes you feel powerful?
* Embrace constraints - think about how constraints, together with your distinctive strengths, can become a tool of creation. Years of reciting rhymes, of creating cartoons, of leveraging what Theodor Geisel did uniquely well, prepared Geisel a.k.a Dr. Seuss (he was not a real doctor and he had no children) to reinvent children's literature with his "The Cat in the Hat". In the book, he used only 225 unique words from a first-grade vocabulary list provided by William Spaulding, the head of Houghton Mifflin's education division, who was eager to find a way to get more kids to read.
* Battle entitlement - Disruption comes because we hunger for a better life. From 1995 to 2005, 52% of Silicon Valley start ups were founded by immigrants. When we're satiated, we're not compelled to innovate and disrupt. Staying open to great ideas, no matter where they come from, is an antidote to entitled thinking.
* Step back, or sideways, in order to grow - Netflix started out as a door-to-door DVD rental service but it is an Emmy Award winning content and streaming company today.
* Fail - Daring to disrupt is daring to fail.
* Let your strategy emerge - We all like to make plans for the future, but being a disruptor requires that we can't see the end from the beginning. What the brain craves, even requires, is a delicious dopamine of the unpredictable.
The most important metric of success is actually how many times we show up. Show up, and keep showing up.
What is nobody else doing?
Why is nobody else doing it?
Would it be beneficial to get good at it? If so, try it.”
Do I see an unoccupied niche to fill or an unmet need that could be addressed by a change in my situation?
Create a position for yourself using your distinctive strengths as the template
Innovate a product or service from within your position
Look for opportunities outside your domain
Disruptors don’t just look for unmet needs; they look for unmet needs that mesh with what they do well — a position of personal strength.
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