Disruptive Thinking

 Disruptive Thinking

In the era of fierce competition, oversupply, and a time where if you're not number one, no one remembers you, Luke Williams' "Disrupt" suggests that it's not about being the best, but about being the only one. As Jerry Garcia sings in his song "Touch of Grey," "We're not trying to be the best. We're trying to be the only ones who can do this." Here, disruption means destruction. Disruptive thinking!!! To achieve what no one else has thought of or done, one must engage in disruptive thinking. And the only way to cultivate this ability is by honing seemingly unremarkable skills like design, empathy, and play. Williams reveals the 5-step formula for disruptive thinking:

1. 1. Formulate disruptive hypotheses.
2. 2. Observe disruptive market opportunities.
3. 3. Generate several disruptive ideas.
4. 4. Flesh out the ideas into disruptive single solutions.
5. 5. Convince investors with a disruptive presentation.

The conventional wisdom about soft drinks is that they should be cheap, taste good, and evoke a sense of longing through advertising. Without discarding this wisdom, new paths cannot be opened. Is it not supposed to be expensive? Does it have to taste good? Red Bull succeeded by conveying a message that their energy drink is charged twice as much as cola.

The conventional wisdom about restaurants is to show the menu first and increase turnover. Shouldn't the menu be shown later? Can't people be kept enjoying it for a long time? El Bulli, repeatedly chosen as the world's best restaurant in Spain, offers 30 courses to be enjoyed over 5 hours. Reservations are only available years in advance. It's already fully booked.

True insight can only be gained by fully immersing oneself in the customer and striving to see from the customer's perspective. Instead of speaking, one must focus on observing. Prepare key questions of curiosity and observe. The highest innovation potential lies in seemingly minor phenomena that appear superficially unremarkable. It's about what makes customers uncomfortable...

Does a wet mop clean better than a dry one? Are you sure? P&G's Swiffer, observed that static electricity better captures dust and became a $200 million revenue product.

Unexpected ideas have few competitors. "Hypotheses breed observations, observations breed insights, insights breed opportunities, opportunities breed ideas." The majority of ideas that emerge are based on convention. Did you know that the designer of Apple's iPod was a professional toilet designer? The sleek materials of the iPod, from the toilet to the chrome-plated faucet, were born. Entrepreneur Mark Andreessen said, "The originality of an idea can be judged by how much ridicule and mockery it receives. Ideas that are not ridiculed are mundane." Many significant innovations started from unexpected discoveries or ideas that seemed entirely impractical. Try merging the generated ideas. Most ideas are perfected through the process of fusion.

Presentations can also be disruptive. Nine minutes is enough time. Making it into three stages is enough to captivate the audience's hearts. Stage 1: Induce empathy (3 minutes, 3 slides) Address the severity of conventional wisdom prevailing in the current situation, reasons why the observed problems exist, and uncomfortable stories told to the customers. Stage 2: Create tension (3 minutes, 3 slides) Generate curiosity and interest in the audience by introducing new knowledge and application cases. Introduce new solutions and higher-level goals and possibilities inherent in the solution. Stage 3: Build trust (3 minutes, 3 slides) It's time to reward the focused audience. Introduce a general understanding of the new solution, answers to the problem, and higher-level goals and possibilities inherent in the solution. Now let's become the only ones through disruptive thinking.