Customers Disrupt Industries not Startups or Technology?

Many organization leaders consult and tell us stories of how competitors have disrupted their market with new technologies and they want to develop counter-strategies to regain market share. We normally ask them - What are your customers saying to you? The responses are either a blank face or numerous excuses. According to the Harvard Business Review June (2019), technology or startup x is not the driver of disruption, your customers are, based on their evolving needs. If you do not pay attention to their pain point, they will switch to your competitors. There are numerous case studies in Silicon Valley for example, there was a yellow cab before Uber, Netscape before Google, hotels, bed and breakfast places before Airbnb, etc. What happened in between? Executives got too comfortable and forgot about "checkmate" in the chess game. As a consequence, billions in shareholder value was lost.

Technology or a startup can be bought and problem solved! Customers are main drivers of disruption because they make decisions on whether to adopt or reject new products or technologies. The lesson is, leaders must always pay attention to changing customer needs to respond appropriately. Many disruptive startups enter new or existing markets not by stealing customers but by stealing a selected few unsatisfied customer activities. @Blingsmart we can provide you with customer and client driven strategies in order to disrupt, manage uncertainty and lead through customer driven innovation. What is your game plan to grow your market? Contact us for a free 30 minute consultation: info@blingsmartllc.com

Source: Teixeira, T. (2019) "Disruption Starts with Unhappy Customers, Not Technology" Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business School Publishing.