Disruption in Business = Code for Innovation
Predicting the turn – Keynote by Dave Knox
Dave’s bio is intertwined with disruption and his analysis on how to navigate it in the business world is on point. During his talk, he discussed some of the topics that he has written about on his book:
”Predicting the turn: The high stakes game of business between startups and blue chips”.
The dramatic leveling of the playing field
Driven by a way of nimbleness that originated with the opportunity the “digital world” brought to business the playing field is getting levelled.
Where Startups thought “Digital Business Model”, Fortune 500’s thought “Digital Marketing”: digital as a model vs digital as a media; from shelf space to infinite shelves….
The high stake of business
Today fierce competition is driven by:
o Venture capital, that invests in R&D, propelling startups
o The speed of change is always accelerating, attacks can come from multiple directions, second order consequences need to be considered (e.g. autonomous vehicles impact on Crake & Barrel Restaurants).
o The size of the total available market, including the creative and disruptive.
o Market intelligence
What can “blue chips” businesses do?
- Innovation Driven Acquisition – invest on the side of change: “I don’t know if the sharing economy will take off, but I am going to follow it up and learn from first hand”.
- Partner in Innovation – this is the one that most of us can do. The key for success is to understand the importance of acting fast: “Startups are like water. They will take the easiest path down the hill” The “slow maybe” characteristic of the larger corps does not work. Startups need to know “yes or no”.
- Disrupt the disruptors – Dave believes the “F-500’s” are the ones that have the best chance. Points to Amazon’s pattern of replicating the startups.
“Develop a sense of how the market will develop, see the future of your industry before it happens”
About the Author: Marga is a technology leader with an international background and a passion for innovation. During the last 20 years she has grown her expertise in research and business development, focused in industrial and manufacturing applications of polymer and materials science, bringing technologies to commercialization in multiple markets. She holds a PhD, is the inventor of several patents and a published author in technical, trade and conference proceedings.