Innovate Through Chaos: Disrupt or be Disrupted

Last week, I watched "Innovate Through Chaos" by Jeremy Gutsche and here are some valuable lessons I've learned:

CRISIS creates URGENCY that leads to CHAOS which opens up OPPORTUNITIES!

Nobody really likes crises because they trigger uncertainty and change. As a species, we love stability and predictability. In fact, we strive to create and follow principles to better predict outcomes and make systematic decisions. We tend to see life as chess, but, in reality, life is poker.

Only those who are able to adapt to abrupt changes can thrive while others simply retreat. While those who are doing good enough and have a lot to lose will stay put; those who take the necessary risks can get ahead in the game. 

When we are succeding, we fall into a path dependency that prevents us from seeing and acting on opportunities. For example, those companies that are doing well are more likely to get stuck in rules, policies, procedures, structures, compliance, and brand standards. Typical excuses may well be: "we are not big enough", "we are not small enough", "this is not related to us", "we can't do that", "we need focus", "we need to hit goals", and "we want results". And this will prevent them from taking action admist crisis. They continue to rely on what has been working out for them while failing to innovate and experiment with new ways of doing things. 

"Companies that are doing well become protective, repetitive and complacent. These companies will be disrupted!"

It is just when dominant players grow complacent that, out of nowhere, new players appear to claim their places. Think of the classical example of Netflix and Blockbuster. When everything goes well, companies feel little need and urgency for change. Yet, when crises hit, innovation is not a luxury, it is a neccessity. 

Companies such as Disney, AirB&B, Apple, Uber, Microsoft, Burger King, FedEx, Venmo, CNN, etc. were founded in periods of economic recession. They all have one thing in common: They've identified a new consumer need which was not there before their respective crisis.

"Chaos changes the rules, it reshuffles the deck, and it switches who is in the lead!"

During the last decade (2010-2019), we were in a very clear path dependency where we experienced one of the longest economically stable periods in history. Steady growth, abundant capital, and, generally an excellent time for new ventures around sexy industries such as Artifical Intelligence, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, Internet of Things, Robotics, and other High Tech advancements that would enhance human potential in a very inspiring way. Yet, we ran into crisis. 

COVID-19 came to put a full stop all around the world. With a great percentage of the world's population currently quarantining at home, consumer preferences get erased and shift very rapidly. Consider for one minute Malow's Hierarchy of Needs. We instantly go from the top of the pyramid to really focusing on surviving and taking care of our basic needs. We forgot about that new iPhone, that Justin Bieber concert, or that all-inclusive cruise in the Mediterranean to ensure we have enough food, supplies, and toilet paper. Amidst this chaos, people don't know what they want anymore, so consumer trends and preferences are being re-designed and new opportunities suddenly appear. 

Hence, right now is the perfect time to think about how we are recharting our future and the way we do things. If consumer needs get erased, let's consider for one second what were our preferences and lifestyles.

For the most part, we were living between our homes and our offices, spending countless hours stuck in traffic to get from A to B. Our consumption patterns became routines: eat at nearby resturants or order food from the same local places; fill up our cars with gas or take public transportation to fullfil our responsibilities (work and study) and to also meet our family and friends on the weekends (entertainment); and we would spend our free time shopping at our city malls and travelling to nearby towns on the weekends or travelling to other warm-weather countries during our holidays. Our consumption heavily revolved around our ability to physically move from place to place. Yet, that has been stopped completely, at least temporarily...

Therefore, how do you think consumer trends are shifting now? You don't have to think too hard to realize that the world has a huge need for working remotely, studying remotely, and online communications. 

Consequently, businesses of all sizes as well as educational institutions need to re-adapt their operations or else, they will be, without a single doubt, disrupted. 

This is an invitation for you to think about how you and your company are adapting to this crisis, to the chaos it will bring in short, and to the way things will be recharted. 

Recommendations

1) To watch "Innovate Through Chaos" by Jeremy Gutsche

2) Try Lark (www.larksuite.com). This is the product I use and highly recommend for both working and studying remotely. Lark is a single platform with integrated powerful features such as Messenger, Calendar, Docs, Calls and Video Meetings, Workplace, etc., that truly makes remote collaboration seamless and effective. And it's free!

Additional Materials

The Patterns of Opportunity

Reduction: What is actually important to your customer? It's not about getting a big idea, it's about a little idea you can make big.

Acceleration: Take a little idea or customer experience and make it bigger, better, smarter, and more exciting.

Divergence: Instead of marketing to the masses, be irresistible to a specific group of people.

Convergence: Your next idea exists in some combination of things you already know.

Redirection: Surprise, gamify and reinvent what is happening now, for a later payoff in the future.

Cyclicality: Everything old is new again.

Chaos Rules

1. You need to solve a new consumer need
2. You can thrive when others retreat
3. Be irresistible to a specific group of people.
4. Chaos changes the rules
5. Chaos reshuffles the deck
6. Chaos switches who is in the lead
7. Create a gambling fund
8. Have more permission to innovate
9. Permission to fail
10. Permission to save the company