Creating Marketplace Disruption

In a recently published book titled, "Create Marketplace Disruption: How to stay ahead of the competition", Author, Speaker and Managing Partner of Spark Partners, Adam Hartung, reveals why so many companies behave in ways that are utterly incompatible with long-term success. Here, he shares an excerpt from the book to help leaders and managers create evergreen organizations that produce above-average returns.

"Change" is the most dreaded word in management. Yet, companies that perform above average long term are extremely good at change. They usually don't even talk about change or change management. They seem to, as the Nike slogan says, "Just Do It." But how?

Phoenix Principle (www.thephoenixprinciple.com) companies don't focus on change. Instead, they use disruptions to attack "lock-in," and by counteracting lock-in, they create the opportunity for evolution to happen. They don't focus on "vision" or try to sell their organizations on forecasts or potential outcomes. Instead, they attack the lock-in that is stopping them from reacting to market challenges. Disrupting lock-in opens their organizations to finding ways out of the swamp.

Visions, speeches, threats and data make little difference to a locked-in success formula. Even those convinced are still locked-in. Leaders, managers and employees at Polaroid, Montgomery Ward, Digital Equipment Corporation and Brach's Candy all knew they needed new solutions. But communications and data did not change their behavioral, structural or cost lock-ins. Organizations don't need more convincing; they need a way to overcome lock-in.

Lock-ins designed to protect a success formula are intertwined and connected -- a tangled web of behaviors and processes. Using analytical efforts to change a success formula is like asking a meteorologist to stop a tornado with weather computers. He or she can explain the cause and what could change the pattern, but data and desire do not do much about the situation. Anyone who has found themselves mired in a year-long business process reengineering project or a four-year ERP implementation knows analytical impracticality.

There are organizations that transition toward more effective, updated success formulas. For example, Apple transitioned from a Macintosh-wedded success formula to a company that distributes songs and sells music players. More recently, Apple even began moving into the mobile telephone marketplace with a marketing splash. Clearly, Apple is no longer simply a "computer" company. 

What's the "secret sauce?" The key to success formula evolution is the effective use of disruption. Managing disruptions is a critical Phoenix Principle skill and provides the foundation for creating and sustaining above-average performance.

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