Digital Strategy – Disruption

Does your digital strategy consider what happens when a new player disrupts your market?

Digital Strategy Series – Digital Disruption

Part of our Digital Strategy series of articles.

This article is part of our Digital Strategy series - a comprehensive look at what makes an effective digital strategy for companies facing the need for radical digital transformation.

Read the whole Digital Strategy series ➜

Digital Disruption

What is Digital Disruption and how should be digital strategy combat it?

Disruption happens when a new product or player enters a market with a totally unexpected way of looking at the problem you and your competitors are trying to solve.

They’re called disruptors because the seismic shift that they can cause can often force established, seemingly robust businesses to fail.

It is imperative that you prepare your business for the inevitability of being disrupted. Wide access to rapidly evolving technology means that no-one is safe from disruption, whatever industry you’re part of.

Disruptors you would recognise

Which industries have been disrupted by newcomers in the past?

Here are few examples of familiar disruptors;

  • Google – When Google came along there were lots of other search engines; Alta-Vista, Hotbot, Yahoo!, MSN, Lycos, etc. Google’s novel model for ranking web pages ( just a few lines of code, in reality ) put all of these sites out of business, in most cases, in only a few years.
  • Uber – Uber’s simplicity and their aggressive approach to propagation has drive taxi firms out of business across the globe and forever changed the commercial model of being an independent cab driver.

  • Netflix – In 2000 Blockbuster’s CEO John Antioco turned down the offer to buy Netflix for $50m. In less than 7 years Blockbuster was gone.

Is my company susceptible to digital disruption?

Does my digital strategy need to consider disruption? Surely I'm safe...?

An increasingly automated workplace means that disruption is coming to almost ever corner of the economy.  Do not assume that it won't happen to you.

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Financial Sector - or "FinTech"

Global banks, payments processors and accountancy firms are being disrupted by newcomers who change the playing field faster than they can keep up with. 

Measure and plan


Robotic cranes can now build complex houses – cutting, laying and cementing brickwork – in a fraction of the normal time, with no human intervention.

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Transport & Logistics

The economics of electric over fossil fuels will ensure that newly available, fully autonomous electric cars & lorries will radically disrupt the whole logistics sector. 

Your digital strategy – a plan to overcome disruption

How do you ensure that you can overcome the disruption when it appears?

As you might expect, it’s very difficult to be specific about an approach without knowing more about your specific situation. Nevertheless our digital strategy template looks at a few important key areas, as follows:

Measure and plan


Be pro-active about incoming disruption

It may seem basic, but are you actively setting aside time to prepare for the possibility you might be disrupted? 

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Continuously improve, using the best available data

Next, are you keeping your plans up-to-date with live data from your processes, customers and team?

Digital Review


Proper monitoring will help to identify the coming change

How automated is your process to identify that you’re on track or deviating from your plans?

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Empower your team to report changes in your market

Are you actively monitoring the available technology and emerging products and players in your market?... consistently and regularly?

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Be at the centre of the disruption if you can

Finally, are you intentionally setting aside R&D time explore new ideas with an open attitude towards experimentation and failure?

What else to consider in your digital strategy...

Is that everything? How do I ensure my digital strategy is robust enough?

These are just a few things to consider when you’re trying to ensure that your digital strategy considers the inevitability of digital disruption in your industry.

If you would like to assess your digital strategy and find out more about how you can start to combat some of these risks why not run through our free Digital Strategy Benchmark tool. It only takes a few minutes and you will get a valuable insight into how your digital strategy can strengthen your company against digital disruption.

Free: Digital Strategy Benchmark

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