Why Disrupt Your Business

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Scenario: "Dude, we're frickin' fine where we are. Let's not fix something that ain't broken. Yay!" How most people unfortunately run their businesses:

  • 1970: Sell laundry detergent.
  • 1980: Sell laundry detergent.
  • 1990: Sell laundry detergent.
  • 2000: Sell laundry detergent.
  • 2007: Sell laundry detergent.

Sticking to your "knitting" might sound fine-and-dandy, but it'll destroy your $$$ potential. Why? Market conditions change every minute. People want new things. Businesses want more innovation. Yadda, yadda, yadda. What was most profitable two years ago won't be so profitable in two months. When you disrupt your business, you ensure your company exploits the most profitable opportunities.

Are You Experiencing The Big Bad Veteran Trap?

The "big-bad-veteran trap" involves continually doing whatever you're doing -- without looking for more profitable opportunities. For instance:

  • Instead of testing tea sales, you continue selling coffee.
  • Instead of experimenting with luxury homes, you continue selling middle-priced homes.
  • Instead of exploring computer accessories, you continue selling personal computers.

What Happens When You Don't Experiment

You leave gobs of potential profits on the table. Here's a scenario:

  1. Say Opportunity A is more profitable than Opportunity B.
  2. You're doing only Opportunity B.
  3. Result: Maximum profit potential = unrealized.

Most companies fall into the vicious trap of: "Hey, this worked in the past! Let's continue doing it"-mentality. Yes, you could still make money doing what you're doing; but, you could generate exponentially more $$$ if you tested other opportunities.

"So, how do I disrupt my business?"

The steps:

  1. First, don't dump whatever you're doing -- instead, use it as your control group.
  2. Then, experiment with opportunities that can profitably knock the !@#$ out of your control group.
  3. If you find a more profitable opportunity than your control group, reconsider doing your control group.

For example, consider: You + Web Design Business

Say your company provides web design, where you're profiting $50K every 30 days. Now, you tell your badass: "Hey, let's see if we can do better by disrupting our web design business! Yay!" So, you follow these steps:

  1. Continue providing web design.
  2. Experiment with selling proprietary accounting software that could potentially disrupt your web design business.
  3. If your accounting software business profits more than $50K every 30 days, you reconsider providing web design services.

What do we mean by "reconsider providing web design services?"

Logically, since you just found a more profitable opportunity -- you could dump it, and you'd still be better off without it. But, to lessen your risk, here's what you could do:

  1. Prioritize your resources into your accounting software business.
  2. Provide web design services during "downtime."

(Please note: We do recommend having multiple product lines because you reduce your risks. But, prioritize your multiple offerings -- and cater your resources, accordingly.)

The Continually-$$$-Rotating Cycle

The difference between these business-builders:

  1. Bad business-builders don't disrupt their businesses.
  2. Amateur business-builders disrupt their businesses once.
  3. Badass business-builders continually disrupt their businesses.

If you want to generate big bucks for your company, follow through this ridiculously awesome cycle that never ends:

  • Step 1: Define control group.
  • Step 2: Disrupt control group.
  • Step 3: Repeat Step 1.

That is, continually find opportunities to disrupt your current product/service/offering line for the ever-changing market conditions.

Hack your shizzle, frequently.

 

Posted March 07, 2007 in Finance, Innovation

6 Comments

on Why Disrupt Your Business

Acel loc caldicel… at Filip Chereches-Tosa
2007-03-07 07:28:41 UTC

[...] ... in care ne gasim de multe ori cand lucrurile par sa fi intrat pe un fagas normal si constant, ne omoara! Ne omoara pentru ca facem totul din obisnuinta, din rutina, din reflex si nu ne mai provocam pe noi insine sa ne auto-depasim, sa cream, sa inventam… Am citit acest articol excelent—pe care il recomand cu toata caldura—si realizez ca am fost acolo. O parte importanta din munca mea la eXigo a fost aceea de a pune la punct o metodologie prin care se fac lucrurile. Un sistem care sa functioneze si care sa fie usor replicabil, indiferent de cerintele proiectelor. Am reusit, intr-o anumita masura si asta este bine! E nevoie de ordine, de sisteme functionale, de conventii. Dar, in locul haosului, a aparut un alt pericol: in loc sa imbunatatim constant ceea ce mergea OK, in loc sa cream componente noi, am ales (inconstient, imi dau seama acum) sa replicam ceea ce invatasem sa facem. Un mic motoras care merge la turatie medie… [...]

Hendy Irawan
2007-03-07 19:24:44 UTC

Hehehe...

This is what I just "adviced" one of my friends too. "Disrupting" a business right from the start: before being employed. (although not as extreme as making an IT company sell lemonade)

When he asked me that most IT job vacancies require skills in "big-bad-veteran" programming languages such C and PHP, I told him, "Why don't you try shoving Ruby on Rails to these guys (potential employers)... See if they change their mind."

This "daring mentality" comes from the story of one interviewee, when he (bravely) asked the boss, "What do you see in me should you decide to employ me?"

Did the boss tell him that his resume was impressive? Or his skills? Or his management quotient?

The boss said, "I want my shares to soar high!"

Yup, both people are more interested in their own self-interest. (as if this is futurely invented rocket science)

Some people working as "regular" employees do not realize how much "power" they can actually have in the company. (and in this sense, do not know, or even care, about the company's wellbeing.) When the company collapses, who do they blame for being jobless?

The Trizle Team
2007-03-09 05:34:38 UTC

We love you Filip Chereches-Tosa!

We saw an "excelent" right next to this article's link so we're assuming that's a good thing :) Thanks for the compliment, Filip!

The Trizle Team
2007-03-09 05:38:04 UTC

Hi Hendy,

Great thoughts, man!

I think the best employers out there hire because of what initiative the person can take. I love working with opinionated people. I guess people can get robotic over time because that's how most businesses treat them. Too bad.

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