Don't go chasing waterfalls

Discussing: Beyond Disruption by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

"Today's wow is tomorrow's ordinary" - at the start of this century, in an inspiring letter to his shareholders, Jeff Bezos commented on the need and state of modern disruption. And there is no doubt. The statement holds true in every sense of the word. But there is a cost and someone always pays.

Disruption is impressive. It makes the life of millions of people better and in the process, rewards the disruptors in billions. But it also brings about immense change to the ones' impacted, resulting in what is called the "cost of social displacement" i.e. existing market players are disrupted and made worse in the process.

I have been thinking about this more and more over the past few months. What caused the layoffs, at Meta, Google and other tech companies? Among other factors, I think it is the price to pay for the next phase of disruption that these companies are after. Even after spending billions on the aspirational Metaverse, in 2023, Meta's priorities have shifted with the launch of Llama 2, officially announcing their entry into the AI arms race. Experts predict that this 4th industrial revolution will lead to a dramatic shift in all aspects of work. Due to the sudden emergence of AI, and in an effort to be a part of this disruption, companies have had to pivot, eventually laying off over 200,000 tech workers. That is the cost of social displacement. Clayton Christensen who is known as the father of disruptive innovation would say, time has come for the new to replace the old.

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Nondisruptive Creation is the idea behind the book, Beyond Disruption. It's a way to think outside the box for existing or new set of problems; creating a brand-new market outside or beyond existing industry boundaries. I'll try my best to highlight a couple of nuggets of wisdom from the book below:

1. Structure and Agency: do not let the current conditions shape your view of what could be

• Structure refers to the environment and the world that we experience, which defines our reality

• Agency is the power that we have to think for ourselves and act in ways that create the environment and the world we experience

• Both are critical in problem solving but results are drastic when you lead with one over the other

  • Structure first, agency later - you are asked to solve a problem with a pre-defined set of rules i.e. operate within the current market reality, rules for which has been established by outside forces. Agency here is constrained by structure

  • Agency first, structure later - the magic of nondisruptive creation comes from thinking first without any constraints. By allowing your mind to build your world of endless possibilities, you define the rules based on your own capability. You flip the script.

2. The Entrepreneur Cult: Recognize that overemphasizing entrepreneurs leads to underemphasizing the creativity and contributions of everyone else

• Entrepreneurs have a unique mindset - they are creative, daring and have strong gut instincts, attributes that many of us may lack.

• The entrepreneur of today has become a phenomena that is so deeply engrained in our psyches that it can lead to dissuading the creative types, the introverts, the non-daring, to showcase their innovative ability. Hence stifling the growth of potential nondisruptive creative ideas.

No rules have been defined for AI yet. The technology is exciting, the possibilities are endless and so are the problems that we face today. Media and markets are completely obsessed with the technology, but it's up to us to focus on the problems instead, and use AI creatively to resolve long standing but unexplored problems or find new problems arising due to the changing world around us. As the old adage goes, change is the only constant. What would the world look like if nondisruptive creation was the gold standard and people preferred to collaborate and compound rather than disrupt first, then rebuild?