At the Association for Supply Chain Management’s (ASCM/ APICS) International Conference, almost every presenter mentioned disruption. It is prevalent in today’s Amazonian, technology-ridden environment. Similarly, after attending APICS, I flew to lead the annual meeting for the Society for the Advancement of Consulting. During the first lunch, my colleagues spent the entire time discussing disruption. One (a former Apple executive) lives it daily and coaches executives on disruption, and the other is a leadership expert who sees the significance and so is writing a book on disruptors. Interesting!
In the interim, we have dealt with a few client challenges – guess what? You got it. They relate to disruption! And last but not least, the next leg of my trip is entirely about disruption. Technology has the potential to vastly impact manufacturing and distribution jobs and so it makes a lot of sense to find a proactive approach instead of playing the victim.
According to a proactive CPA partner, artificial intelligence is going to transform the industry. According to a healthcare expert, it has vast potential to disrupt the healthcare industry. Gartner thinks 33% of all occupations will be performed by smart robots by 2025. Forrester Research says AI will take over up to 16% of jobs in the U.S. And, if that wasn’t shocking enough, Google thinks robots will achieve human intelligence levels by 2029. So, do you want to be the disrupted or the disruptor? We choose disruptor!
Since I had lunch with two disruption experts, I asked the critical question: Can we learn to become a disruptor? The great news is that it is possible. Start paying attention to disruptors. What do they do differently? What would you like to emulate? You don’t have to do exactly what they do. Find your own path but look for commonalities. One of our colleagues is writing a book on this exact subject. When it comes out, we’ll pass it along. In the interim, start asking a few questions….