5 Ways to Disrupt a Dying Industry

Source: Inc.com
URL: http://www.inc.com/bubba-page/5-ways-to-disrupt-a-stagnant-or-dying-industry.html

I thought this was an interesting article that looked at a different way to innovate and that is by disrupting the industry.  From the article

"New competitors with new business models arrive; incumbents choose to ignore the new players or to flee to higher-margin activities; a disrupter whose product was once barely good enough achieves a level of quality acceptable to the broad middle of the market, undermining the position of longtime leaders and often causing the 'flip' to a new basis of competition."

So basically these are companies that turned a particular industry on its head.  There are actually quite a few recent examples they use.

Netflix is a great example of this.  Blockbuster ignored them as a snail mail provider of DVD's and now Blockbuster is out of business and Netflix is a household name in streaming video.  The article also discusses AirBnB and Uber as huge companies that started very small but completely disrupted the operating models in their industry.

1. Address & Remove Industry Pain Points - So look at what isn't working in the industry and fix it in the service you provide.

  2. Answer Questions, Resolve Concerns, & Solve Problems On Your Website - This seems to be the norm for many companies now, communicate directly with your customers.  Also, provide them information about your product when others in the industry aren't.  Consumers these days have access to information about everything else, so now they expect to know more about how your product is made.

3. Embrace New Technology - Determine how technology can help you where others in your industry might be overlooking it.  Netflix was a perfect example of this.

4. Simplify & Streamline Processes - This is an oldie but a goodie, Make your product/service easier to produce than your competitors, this allows you to reduce prices and still make a profit.

5. Finding Ways To Cut Costs & Reduce Overhead - I think this goes hand and hand with number 4.  Also a tried and true way to increase profits, is to reduce your monthly expenses.

I think some of these are pretty standard business practices for improving the way your organization provides product/services, but looking at them as disrupting the industry is an interesting way to look at it.