It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survive is the one that is able to adapt to and to adjust best to the changing environment in which it finds itself……so says Charles Darwin in his “Origin of Species.” Ger Hofstee and Sybren Tijmstra, the authors of “Business Strategy through Disruption”, analyse the fast moving disruption developments in consumer- and service markets. Disruption means a sudden disruption of market shares, mostly by young new companies which take dominant positions in a market at the expense of existing market parties. Digital innovation, one of the most disruptive trends, becomes in a very short timeframe the driver of disruption.
Disruption is a threat but also a chance!
The old world, often surprised by the creative initiators of those new businesses, is paralyzed and ‘let it happen’. Disruption is not new. The first car canabalised the horse and carrage, the computer canabalised the typewriter and many more examples. Disruption is very predictable if in your market there is lack of transparency, lack of freedom of choice and waste of resources. A good illustration of the predictability of these riskfactors is the Uber taxi market example.
The proactive solution to avoid disruption is to become the disruptor yourself. That means development of a new creative business strategy, bold decision making and high service oriented implementation. Ger and Sybren advice MBA students and managers to survive the power of disruption in their markets, by adjusting more quickly. As writer Jackson Brown Jr formulate it most beautifully: “when you can’t change the direction of the wind - adjust your sails.” In this book you will find a lot of inspiration and tools, to create new competitive strategies and business planning to adjust your sails.
