How disruption ready are you?

Time to read: 5 minutes to gain a different perspective

// The music of change //

New Year blues fully banished, enthused for the year ahead – personal and professional bucket list refreshed.

I am lucky; I have managed to secure a seat on an overcrowded commuter train. I might actually buy a lottery ticket, since my luck appears to be in. Earphones plugged in, I’m listening to my downloaded Amazon music selection.

No more Spotify or Dreezer. Amazon is now my music streaming provider – mainly due to the availability of a wider set of experience options that come with the wider streaming service. But I am sure this will change again, in time, particularly given the ease of switching between streaming providers.

This small act of choosing Amazon over Dreezer, Spotify, Apple, Google, Tidal, Pandora or YouTube is actually significant. In a little over two years, Amazon has gained over 40 million global users and has overtaken a number of traditional players, such as Apple music and Tidal.

I reflected upon this and the extent to which the music market has been disrupted. Disruption is a universal truth and is all-pervasive. Disruption is unkind and unforgiving and appears at the most suboptimal moments – however, disruption is also an opportunity. Those organisations that are disruptive, aware, progressive and innovative are the ones that will join the 49% of FTSE companies which have remained since 1999 or the 12% of Fortune 500 companies which have survived since 1955.

// Inflection points – words from the wise //

I thought I would share a few of my favourite quotes regarding disruption; feel free to contribute your own.

“I try all things; I achieve what I can.” Herman Melville

"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often." Winston Churchill

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” Albert Einstein

The mood music of change and disruption is always playing; I guess we must make a conscious choice to acknowledge its existence and listen to it. This raises an interesting question …

Can you hear the music, and how disruption-ready are you?