Leadership in a Disruptive World
Exploring the competencies, skills, behaviours and processes of Leaders in a Disruptive World
Russell Williams
The world of business is not the same place it was even just a few years ago: social media, cloud working, crowd sourcing, open innovation, ‘micro payments’ (e.g. apps) and ‘free to use’ services etc has changed (and continues to change) the value proposition offered by many organisations. Consider for a moment the music and publishing industries. In both, the incumbent market leaders are struggling to adjust their strategies to combat challenges – not from identifiable competitors – but rather from new fast moving start-ups or established businesses in other sectors needing to adapt to survive. For example, Spotify, the online music subscription service, is challenging both traditional retail players such as HMV and the music download players. In the academic book publishing world Bookboon, is challenging the status quo with a model based on advertising revenue rather than cover price.
In the above cases the incumbent market leaders failed to evolve their business models and strategies to avoid their businesses being disrupted with revenue stolen by a creative, agile competitor from out-with their field of vision. What did the top team miss? Why did they fail to act to revise their strategies? What prevented experienced and knowledgeable management teams from saving their organisations? How did unknown companies, with relatively inexperienced management teams, gain substantial market traction in a fraction of the time taken by the incumbent market leaders to develop their position? How, did established businesses, struggling to make money in one sector, suddenly manage to reinvent themselves and become dominant players in another sector? Think Apple and the iPhone!
Beyond the disruption caused by other organisations, recent events have also shown organisations unable to see changes in public perception about what constitutes ethical business practice and the way business needs to be done. Think about the pressure currently being brought to bear on companies who have been legally avoiding paying corporation tax in the UK (e.g. Starbucks and Google). Think also about the banking sector which is still struggling to reinvent itself after the financial crisis. The management teams within these organisations frequently strived to preserve business as usual, a strategy which has, arguably, cost them their reputation and revenue.
The focus of this workshop is on Leadership in a Disruptive World, and in particular how Leadership, or lack of it, will determine why some organisations capitalise on the potential to disrupt markets and other organisations become the victims of the disruptive strategies of others. But what exactly is this necessary Leadership and how does it differ from, or complement, other leadership models and frameworks? In the workshop we will explore this concept by looking at leadership characteristics and behaviours of both disruptive companies and companies that have been disrupted. From this base and in discussion with participants the workshop sets out to identify some key characteristics of Leadership and provide some frameworks for participants to benchmark their own competence as a Leader in a disruptive world. The workshop will also explore how the concept of ‘Disruptive Leadership’ fits with the other established leadership frameworks and theories. In sum the workshop will provide a range of tools and techniques to allow participants to reflect on the Leadership within their own organisation and map out a development plan for the future.
Reading: Text Book
Northouse, P.G. (20130 Leadership: Theory and Practice, (6th Edition) London: Sage.
(we will in part be looking at disruption through the lens of the theory set out in this text)
Reading: Articles (articles about disruption)
Chesbrough, H., 2010. Business model innovation: opportunities and barriers. Long range planning, 43(2), pp.354-363.
Leavy, B., 2014. Strategy, organization and leadership in a new “transient-advantage” world. Strategy & Leadership, 42(4), pp.3-13.
Kaplan, S., 2012. Leading disruptive innovation. Ivey Business Journal.
Osterwalder, A., Ondrus, J. and Pigneur, Y. (2005) “Skype’s Disruptive Potential in the Telecom Market: A Systematic Comparison of Business Models”. University Lausanne Working Paper .
Videos (short videos on disruption)
Clayton Christensen and James Quigley – Building a Disruptive Corporate
Simon Waldman on Creative Disruption – Author of the book of the same name.
Note: Participants will be directed to further reading through the workshop.
