books

Some individuals have a large impact on society and Thank you for disrupting is about their big ideas and underlying thinking.

Disruption is a well defined term now but many decades ago when it was introduced by Jean-Marie Dru that was not the case. The business culture was still wowed by continuous improvement methodology, and disruption had a negative connotation.

Lee Clow was Steve Job’s dedicated advertising partner and a friend from the very beginning of Apple. He was behind the famous 1984 “Think different” ad as well as the 66 “Mac versus PC” commercials.

According to Clow ideas accelerate change: they rule the world. He is not a believer of good ads but big ideas. Brands should associate themselves with powerful ideas that state what the brand stands for.  A big idea works as a source of inspiration but also as a filter. They focus and provide consistency to the digitally disperse and fragmented marketing space.

Previously advertising was about producing creative messages to the audience. Now it’s about strong stories that create audiences from scattered media: users want to share the message to each other. Only the strong ideas and stories survive.

And they also have the best results. According to McKinsey the more creative the campaign the higher the likelihood that the featured product will sell. Creatively awarded campaigns seem to ensure also better returns with a less risk.

One of the leading trails between different persons from Steve Jobs, Lee Clow and Bernard Arnault (of LVMH) to Oprah Winfrey is their dedication to pay careful attention to detail. They are very involved with every aspect of the brand experience and how it is presented in the everyday mundane business aspects. Everything represents the brand and therefore it’s important.

Herb Kelleher is a legend in the airline industry. His Southwest Airlines broke the assumption that low cost equals low quality. Southwest puts its employees first and hires on attitude vs. skills. With a right company culture it has achieved revenues of over 35 billion and it has never laid off a single employee since its foundation in 1971. The staff is also the best compensated in the industry. Kelleher has stated his vision and strategy simply as low cost, superior service and people first.

Leading entrepreneurs consider their organisation to be in a continuous state of flux. A decentralised decision-making combined with a strong vision can drive a large number of people in a coordinated but yet agile fashion towards ambitious business goals. Organisations become vulnerable to disruption the moment they start to protect their turf and focus on incremental improvements.

Great companies create markets instead of focus on gaining market share. They keep their attention on business models and not just on products.

Big ideas and strong values move people.

Entrepreneurs disrupt the status quo! David McCourt embraces entrepreneurial revolution that results beneficial change for the majority and disrupts the status quo for the incumbent players.

Technology allows for everyone to become new revolutionaries yet few realises and acts upon this realisation. As in history, it’s very likely that the biggest innovators come from the have-nots that have very little to lose and a higher tolerance for risk taking.

Historically this was the case with European immigrants coming to America and escaping dire conditions back at home. This time it’s the 5 billion people who are not as well off as the 2.5 billion enjoying the best lifestyle the planet has to offer.

McCourt describes his story coming from a large family and finding his way into entrepreneurial adventures from early age up to this day. During those years he have managed to be part of the cable television as well as fiber optics industry disruption and providing cheaper services for consumers at the expense of the oligopolistic competitors.

The book is full of colourful stories and mission impossibles where McCourt jumps to the water first and figures out later how to swim. This results him to learn quickly and unearth large opportunities that have enabled him to publicly list and sell many companies.

Berkshire Hathaway’s board member Walter Scott is McCourt’s mentor and he shares some of his wisdom and philosophies. For example, “never mistake a fad for a trend” and “take care of your people and your equipment”. The latter means that you can ruin your capex investment by not having the right people taking care of your equipment.

McCourt is a big believer in fair and honest relationships where business is made for the long term and this is reflected in the partnership deals as well.

As a curiosity McCourt mentions that he managed to raise $6.1 billion for his RCN Corp making that the world record for a start-up funding into any single project. He also managed to raise $1.65 billion from a single individual (i.e. Paul Allen).

Tellingly New York magazine ranked Allen’s investment the “best deal of the millennium” and the “worst deal of the millennium” in the same issue. The dot com bubble crashed capital markets and resulted Allen to take a deep hair cut in his investment.

One of the persisting messages of the book is how to provide solutions and value for the less connected and powerful (and quoted in the book):

”Those capable of channeling the power of the crowd must turn their energies to something more fundamental: redesigning society’s systems and structures to meaningfully include and empower more people. The greatest test for the conductors of new power will be their willingness to engage with the challenges of the least powerful”

The future is all about cooperation, win-win solutions, peer-to-peer and crowdsourcing. Corporations, nations and incumbent structures have too much to lose and therefore they are most of the time unable to renew adequately leading them to be disrupted and replaced. Entrepreneurs the world is yours!