Disruptions Galore — What I learned at Stanford Lead Preview?

When I attended a preview course for the Stanford Lead program, I didn’t fully understand how business disruptions operated. Now, I do it better than I did before.

“I have a great respect for incremental improvement, and I’ve done that sort of thing in my life, but I’ve always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don’t know why. Because they’re harder. They’re much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you’ve completely failed.”

- Steve Jobs

The success mantra for most big-ticket businesses has now turned out to be business disruption. The 10-day preview course coaxes the students to understand business disruptions through Porter’s 5 forces model — a timeless management tool for industry leaders. The educator asserts that businesses can be disrupted with a change in dynamics impacting the five forces — customers, suppliers, competitors, substitutes, and new entrants.

I pondered over the topic to figure out how many businesses have been disrupted and which ones are the cusp of disruption by others. Here is my list of top businesses that have disrupted the entire value chains of industries they set their eyes on:

1. Amazon: From a book selling e-commerce site that almost got bankrupt to being crowned as the world’s most valuable entity, Amazon’s journey is inked in the history of modern businesses. Amazon disrupted the big departmental stores and the entire retail value chain across the countries, it operates in. The company systematically disrupted several industries whose products can be sold online and continues to disrupt many others. From grocery retail to pharma retail to financial services, the list is endless. It also disrupted the big tech firms with its AWS offerings. If you are Amazon junkie, go read The Everything Store to get an inside scoop of the Amazing business empire — Amazon.
2. Reliance: If you have followed the Indian business scene, chances are you have heard of Reliance as well. Traditionally, the chemical to O&G conglomerate was known for its efficiency and audacious scale. Under the leadership of second-generation entrepreneur, Mukesh Ambani, the fortune of the company has changed. It is now at the cusp of disrupting the telecom, retail, ed-tech, sports & entertainment, streaming, financial services, fuel retailing, and many more industries in India.
3. Apple: The disruptive school of business is perhaps Steve Jobs’ legacy. Many have learned and implemented the lessons learned from him to pivot their businesses and disrupt others around them. Steve managed to disrupt the mobile phone, music streaming, and animation industry. Don’t forget to read the masterpiece on Steve’s life.
4. Tesla: Much like Steve Jobs, Tesla’s founder Elon Musk is on his way to disrupt several industries. His successful attempt on disrupting one industry led to the creation of the world’s most valuable automobile company — Tesla. Piggy banking on the concept of design engineering and riding the electric car wave, Elon Musk has created the world’s most talked-about car brand — Tesla. He is on his way to disrupt space travel with SpaceX.
5. PayTm: PayTm is India’s most valued fintech start-up. It is not appropriate to actually count it as a start-up. The company got the Indians at the bottom of the pyramid and mom & pop retail shop owners hooked to online payments. Much like Alibaba in the US, the company operates an online retail store and financial services businesses. From payment to insurance distribution to MF selling to Gold-selling, the all in the app-based business is rapidly turning out to be India’s preferred financial supermarket.

I know that the list is endless.

Will be great to learn from you how your industries are getting disrupted. Do leave me a note with your suggestions and feedback.