Preparing For Disruption

Disruption is defined as a break or interruption in the normal course or continuation of some activity or process and so you would also assume that this disruption is caused by some time of surprise, unplanned, event that causes the interruption. Then by this definition it is very difficult to plan for disruption, however you can prepare for a disruption by developing flexibility and improved sensory tools to quickly react to the disruption. The challenge then is; how do you prepare for a surprise or unplanned event? Considering the worst case result of the disruption, though it is one of the most important activities for any business and especially for the retail marketplace and the partners and infrastructure supporting the retail marketplace. In short somehow preparing for disruption is at least as important and should receive the same focus and effort as sales forecast and product development.




I say this because disruption by its very definition cannot be planned and as a result there is no way to forecast how or when the disruption will materialize. So the disruption can be in products or sales channel or even marketplace and the disruption ripples across a large number of participants and even other marketplaces impacting process and activities in its wake. We have reached a point though in technologies supporting the marketplace activities and processes that has dramatically increased the partner flexibility capabilities along with the analysis and forecast capabilities that can be incorporated to support the sensory early identification of potential disruptions and allow the partners in the marketplace to quickly adjust in a manner that allows them to react to the disruption and address the interruption.




The focus in the retail marketplace must be on sensing or even creating the next market disruption. This can be achieved through robust collaboration and data analytics. The key though, in my opinion, is the sense potential change and move to react and take advantage of the change. In order to succeed in the response to change the partners must embrace failure and understand that the only way to meet the challenge is through a continuous improvement process of plan, do, check, act, or, trial and error. This process must increase in velocity though in order to reduce the reaction and action timing. The goal of this process is to not just improve the ability and the speed of reaction but to actually help to disrupt the marketplace base on the reactions of the consumers. This, in effect, has been the path taken by Amazon in their market disruption over the years, Amazon has recognized signs from consumers and taken action to react and support the consumer demands.




Unfortunately this is a culture change in addition to the change in process and the culture change will be the most difficult to install. It will require a continuous focus and engagement from all levels and all partners in the marketplace to succeed. However, there really is no other option and the sooner this is realized and embraced, the sooner the disruption will be understood and embraced.