3 Reasons why disruption is your opportunity
I was watching a representative of the taxi industry here in Australia being interviewed on a morning show the other day and it made me cringe as she “explained” all the reasons you should use a taxi rather than Uber (I think I saw her nose crinkle like she was smelling something bad every time she mentioned the word Uber). Problem was, as she explained all the reasons to use Taxis over Uber, she was running through the list of issues that the taxi industry had addressed over many years and trying to relate them to Uber. She had not done any analysis on Uber and so every time she talked about the issues (such as safety or “double dipping”) the interviewer pulled her up and told her how Uber handles this and how the uber solution has been far more effective than the taxi industry. She had no response and therefore looked pretty silly.
As I listened to this person talk about her industry I felt a little sorry for the Taxi drivers who genuinely don’t know what to do about this disruption to their industry. The industry as a whole had not recognised that this technology disruption was actually an opportunity for them to do a better job than Uber. Stuck in their old ways and unable to think laterally they may end up dead like the dodo. So here are three things that they could do (and what you should do when your industry is disrupted).
1. Look at the new technology and see how you can leverage this to your advantage. Imagine if the taxi industry developed an app like Ubers (and it aint hard folks — if you think it is give me a call and I’ll get it done for you!). This app would be able to tell customers where their cab is, be able to take payments and allow each person to know which cab driver took them to their destination in case they lose their phone or wallet. Sure, you would have to ditch the monopoly that is cab charge here in Australia, but cab charge may want to get involved and deliver the payment gateway — so the total cost of building the technology would be even less.
2. Look at what you already have, that the competition doesn’t have. With the taxi industry they really have spent a lot of time and money solving many issues over a long period. Every cab now has a camera in it. Thats a whole lot safer than the Uber cars that don’t! I’m not an expert on the taxi industry (though sometimes I think I am with the amount of time I spend in cabs) but I’m sure if they put some effort into thinking through their strengths they could come up with a long list of advantages that Taxi’s have over Uber drivers. Leverage your strengths — particularly when the they are differentiators.
3. Know the competition. If your going to go on the telly and defend your industry against the competitor thats coming in and disrupting your business, you need to know why people are using their service instead of yours. Understand the strengths of the new business model and probe it for weaknesses. Don’t rock up to the interviewer and start throwing around issues that relate just to your business and have been solved in a vastly different way by the new technology.
I’m a firm believer in organisations being very focused on their own business and not being too focused on the competition. But you need to have some time focused on understanding what the competition are doing so that you can stay one step ahead and continue to innovate. If your unlucky enough to work in an industry that is disrupted by new technology (that you didn’t see coming), don’t be the frog in the boiling water that ignores the problem and then “croaks”, work out how this new technology, combined with your existing strengths can make you even better.
