The Cranky Middle Manger Show #070 (MP3 10.6MB 30:58Min)

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First, a big old thank you to all of you, my colleagues, who listen to this show. In October the Cranky Middle Manager Show went over 10,000 downloads in a month for the first time! That’s an incredible milestone (double where we were in January) and I’m truly grateful to you all for your support. Let’s get some more subscribers now and really bring those weasels to their knees…..

Secondly, I think this show is a prime example of what we do. We’ll talk to Michael Urlocker about disruption and why it can (paradoxically) be planned. I had a blast doing this interview and hope you like it. Those of us who try to change whatever corner of the work world we inhabit will find (I hope) inspiration, solid tools, and a laugh or two. This is why I do the show. Enjoy.
Show Notes

0:00 Today we’re talking about disruption in business… you can be the disruptor or the disrupted. We’re talking to Michael Urlocker of OnDisruption.com.

We dedicate the show to King Henry V. I even do a cranky version of the St Crispin’s Day Speech ( you can see the original here- one of the great morale boosters of all time).
Talk about disruptive technology and changing the rules. At Agincourt the English were outnumbered and outclassed. All they had were cowardly, illiterate, filthy, no-class archers. Yeah, well those ignorant nancy-boys just put a foot of willow and feathers through your noggin and kicked your butts- how’s that for disruption?

3:35 Are you dying of a kind of creeping common sense? This week’s quote from Oscar Wilde….

5:00 Welcome Michael Urlocker. I’ve been accused of being a disruption and never as a compliment…so why is it so important? Well, if you’re a radio station, how disruptive to your business is the fact that I can do this show from my spare room?

7:23 We talk about successful examples of disruption. Red Bull (also known as IT Department Crack) and ING Bank are good examples.

10:00 There is a methodology for identifying and exploiting disruption. Michael tells a great story about the Blackberry (for the first time anywhere it gets compared to the Luftwaffe…you try living in my head for a while).

15:23 Why don’t big companies disrupt themselves? The EV-1 should have saved GM, so what happened? Why did IBM get the PC so right?

18:40 On Michael’s website, he has a white paper that’s worth reading. He also has some tools like a brainstorming tool and a disruption scorecard.

A couple of questions that are key:

• What are the attributes customers no longer value?
• What are the attributes people want to pay for?

Clayton Christenson is the godfather of disruption research. Check him out. Especially his two books: The Innovator’s Dilemma and the Innovator’s Solution

24:50 What if you think you see the disruption and need to take it upstream? There are two ways depending on the answer to this question- will it cannibalize your current business?

If not, you can do it as a project on the side with spare change and few resources.

If so, you have to ask the scary question- Do you think our start up competitors have to ask themselves the same question about cannibalization?

28:15 What are the resources you should check out?

The Innovator’s Solution by Clayton Christenson

Christenson’s Strategy and Innovation Newsletter

Watch The Godfather 2.... talk about disruptive business practices. If only all homework came with popcorn…..

That’s it for this week’s show. Drop me an email…. Join our Frappr Map …

Visit www.achismarketing.com and buy a copy of my e-book, Meet Like You Mean It, the Cranky Middle Manager’s Guide to Productive and Painless Meetings.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 12th, 2006 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Podcast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.