Disruptive Process Improvement and Innovation

So, in my last blog I ask the question: Can process improvement be disruptive? I have found several blogs and articles that suggest a positive answer. Craig Reid suggests innovation is the forgotten man of process improvement. By adopting systematic process improvement methods and starting from a clean sheet of paper one can create innovative processes, products, and services. Ben Nneji wrote

" Everett Rogers, in his book, "Diffusion of Innovations," defines innovation as "an idea, practice or object that is perceived as new by an individual" or whoever else would use, consume or adopt the innovation. While process improvement focuses on improving an existing idea, practice or object, innovation focuses on "newness." But they both focus on bringing desirable change."

 To implement both process improvement and innovation you must be disruptive and grow a culture of disruption.  Process improvement helps reduce inefficiencies (Lean), reduce defects (Six Sigma) and ensures that you do the right thing - Customer Experience Management (CEM).  Innovation helps you look beyond your current customer base and technology focus to be award of what is happening around you.

Can Process Improvement be Disruptive?

A number of articles I have read recently say that it is difficult, or impossible, to develop disruptive innovations in an existing company or organization.  See here for an example from a blog post.  Suggestions are to separate them from an ongoing business to isolate them from the pressures of meeting operational goals, such as revenue, profit, etc.  So, they reinforce the idea that innovation must occur in a new company or isolated in an existing company.

But, what about continuous improvement, such as those encouraged by the Malcolm Baldridge award?  As a Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE) I would think that process improvement would lead to the potential of developing disruptive innovations.  If anyone has seen any research or articles that address this, please let me know.

Process improvement, if properly addressing all aspects of the process and resulting products/services, would take into account innovations that are new and have potential to affect what the company is currently doing.  If cost reduction, then addressing all areas that could result in cost reduction might lead to a disrupting innovation that made them a market leader.  Sane with almost any characteristic of either the process or the result of executing that process.

What do you think?  Is it possible to develop disruptive innovations through process improvment? 

Top 7 Disruptive Personal Media Trends for 2013

Innovation Labs published their analysis of the top personal media trends that they believe will be disruptive to business in 2013.  They list the following:

1. Responsive web design is becoming a strategic must-have
2. Mobile data encryption: growing exponentially in importance
3. Mobile video is fast becoming mass consumer phenomenon
4. Every organisation will need a UX Designer
5. The ‘Internet of Things’ is merging the digital world with the physical world
6. Mobility is the top priority as a driver of transformational change for CEOs
7. iOS and Android continue to dominate in a fast moving ecosystem, with app stability becoming a major issue

Individually I don't think many of these are or will be disruptive.  Taken as a whole as characteristics of mobility they play a role in the disruptive innovation of mobility.  People do not want to be tied to any one place to do their work, enjoy their entertainment, or connect to their friends.  Any business must address the issue of how they deliver the services and products in a mobile society, and this will change many things.

Examples of how things are already impacted are reports you see in the news about Best Buy being a showroom for on-line ordering - but not necessarily from Best Buy.  Mobility has also changed the delivery business since what you order on-line from your mobile phone has to be delivered.  Stores like Walmart are offering instant pickup of orders placed on-line, or even delivered to your home.  All these are disruptive changes in the market place.

But, I think the Internet of Things (IoT) is probably the most disruptive of all, and we are just now beginning to see the effects.

Are Tablets Disruptive to the PC?

The Wall Street Journal today published an article that indicates that Gartner sees a structural shift in the PC market.  This is based on the drop in PC sells by 6% for 2012.  While PCs are not being left in the dust, the tablet appears to be the gift of choice for this past Christmas gift giving season.

I see coworkers carrying around tablets to meetings instead of laptops.  I have a tablet that I use for various things, but it doesn't replace my PC.  For me there are several reasons the PC will continue to be in my life - complex graphics and virtual reality video games - all of which require the power of a PC and graphics card.

At work, the table may be disruptive to the PC as most companies work from a server based infrastructure, so email, etc., are all kept on a server, and not on a laptop.  In the future, the cloud (a server in the sky) will do the same thing.  For my tablet to become really usable at home, I will have to move to a cloud environment, otherwise if I read my email on the table, I have to either save it there, or read it again on my PC and save it there.  Or both, and then I need to sync both systems.

So, are tablets disruptive?  Not yet, in my opinion, but they may become so.  The trends in storage, power included in the tablet, and communications speed in wireless capability, even in the home, all will merge to make it disruptive.

Characterisits of Disruptive Innovation

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University recently published (Fall of 2012) an article: "Mastering the art of disruptive innovation in journalism" by Clayton M. Christensen, David Skok, and James Allworth.  Christensen had developed a theory of disruptive innovation to explain how businesses grow, become successful, and then falter as startups take away their customers.  This has been demonstrated in multiple industries, and this article applies it to the field of journalism.  

But in this study they propose that disruption comes about because of the job the service or product allows one to do.  They suggest that you need to ask three questions to identify that job:

• What is the job audiences want done?
• What kinds of employees and structure does the company need so it can fulfill that job-to-be-done?
• What is the best way to deliver that information to audiences?

As markets and products are disrupted, they are replaced with markets and products that do the job better.  How does one move from providing a solutions one way to providing the same solution in a better and different way? A way that replaces the old way? A disruptive way?  This article suggest that there are three things one needs to examine: resources (or capabilities), processes, and priorities.  All of these are difficult to change as they are part of the culture of the company.  New ways often need to be done by new people, new processes, and new priorities that are separate from the old ones.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal indicates that magazines add pages dropped 8.2% in 2012 and 32% since 1908.  This illustrates the problem of old media be supplanted by the new media.

One area that they don't address which I believe is critical is the technology trends that cross and merge to make these new ways of doing things possible.

Is 3D a Distruptive Technology?

Last year at CES 3D was everywhere. This year at CES there was very little mention of it.  One can buy 3D TV but most people that I know never turn on the function.  I personally have 2 TVs with 3D capability, but have never used it.

3D doesn't seem to fit the definition of a disruptive technology.  It is not something that emerging markets are using and the big players all have it, so it is not something that appears at this time to create new markets or displace established ones.

Is it just too soon?  Is 3D a sleeping technology waiting for the right application of the technology to make it really take off?  Ot is it just another technology that can be used when special effects are desired.

I was at the dentist the other day and he had a 3D machine that took a 3D image of your tooth.  Similar to a CAT scan for you mouth.  Maybe 3D is a niche market today, but will it break out into something bigger?

Are the requirements for special glasses holding it back.  Will glasses-less 3D catch on better?  Or do we have to wait for Google glasses to make 3D available for any and everything?

What do you think?  Will 3D be disruptive?

What Will Be Disruptive in 2013?

In 1995 Harvard Business Review published "Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave"
by Joseph L. Bower and Clayton M. Christensen.  This article addressed one of the most consistent patterns in business, i.e. the inability to stay at the top of their industry when tecnologies or markets change.  Ultimately, these authors posit, the problem is that they stay too close to their customers.  The result of this closeness is that investments are strongly influenced by existing customers.  The technology they could have invested in was not wanted by their customers - until their customers wanted it, and then it was too late.  The technologies that enter through emerging markets are ignored, because existing customers don't want it, and the emerging markets are too small to address.  The technology in the emerging markets are also often not as good as what currently exist, but the rate of improvement is often faster than that of existing technology. 

"For example, although personal computers did not meet the requirements of mainstream minicomputer users in the early 1980s, the computing power of the desktop machines improved at a much faster rate than minicomputer users’ demands for computing power did. As a result, personal computers caught up with the computing needs of many of the customers of Wang, Prime, Nixdorf, Data General, and Digital Equipment. Today they are performance-competitive with minicomputers in many applications. For the minicomputer makers, keeping close to mainstream customers and ignoring what were initially low-performance desktop technologies used by seemingly insignificant customers in emerging markets was a rational decision—but one that proved disastrous."

 The Harvard Business Review Blog published on January 10, 2013: "Disruptive Trends to Watch in 2013"

"The pattern that simple, convenient, low-priced solutions would grow from humble beginnings to create and transform industries had not yet been identified."

But, that excuse no longer applies.  Many have built on the work of Clayton Christensen and have identified the critical phases of disruptive technology:

1. Conception. When a disruptive idea is first born, typically far away from the market's mainstream. In these early days, there typically are a range of companies experimenting with a new model, fighting to figure out a sustainable business model.
2. Coming of age. When at least one of the would-be disruptors crosses from the fringes to more mainstream applications.
3. Crossing over. When the disruptor becomes the mainstream. Sometimes this shift results in the whole-sale replacement of the previous market leader; sometimes it creates a completely parallel market (which typically ends up being larger than the previous market due to the democratizing power of disruption).

The article goes on to identify those technology in 2012 that have proven disruptive and predict four technology that will be disruptive in 2013:

1. 3-D printing
2. The Internet of Things
3. New healthcare business models
4. Low-cost, online, competency-based learning universities     

These are all worth watching and have been suggested by others a potential disruptive technologies of the near future.  What do you think?  Will these be disruptive?