IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO BREAK YOUR OWN ORTHODOXIES, NO-DOUBT THEY WILL BREAK YOU
“Business orthodoxies are pervasive beliefs that often go unstated and unchallenged. They shape the strategy and create dangerous blind spots”.
One of the most critical questions any business should ask is - can we truly, truly, break our own orthodoxies, or those of our industry ? You see, the answer here is far from being a trivial one. Truth of the manner, for most companies the answer would be - NO. And that answer leaves, almost per definition, an open door for disruption.
How come for most hotels, the check-in time is still 3pm ? Many grocery stores have a special quick register for people buying ONLY 4 products ? Renting a car at the airport is a cumbersome lengthy exercise? The simple answer is – ‘it made perfect business sense in the past’. And that is true. But, we are no longer in the past and the only relevant answer today is – ‘it does NOT make any sense’. In fact, all those examples hide '‘Economic Inefficacies’. Disruption has many definitions one of which suggests - “The introduction of new business models that are more economically efficient than the existing ones'“. Catch my drift ? Having ‘Economic Inefficiencies’ in your business might be the biggest catalyst for its disruption.
Of everything else, the inability of a business to break its own orthodoxies is the biggest risk for disruption it is running, but at the same time also the biggest opportunity to really innovate at its core and immune itself against a potential shakeout.
Now, nothing I said here is new, so let me ask you a question – how good are you in challenging your own orthodoxies ?
Food for thought !