The Disruption Mindset

by Charlene Li

Many companies make disruption their goal. They believe that if they develop the right innovation, they will disrupt their markets forever and drive the kind of growth worthy of a magazine cover story. But as bestselling author Charlene Li explains, that’s not how disruption works. Disruption doesn’t create growth; instead, growth creates disruption.

Growth is always hard, and disruptive growth is exponentially harder. It requires companies to make tough decisions in the face of daunting uncertainties: Should we bet our company’s future on next-generation customers or today’s reliable ones? Should we abandon our current business model for an entirely new one? Making bold changes demands bold leadership and, often, massive cultural transformation.

Over the years, Li has seen some organizations beat the odds and succeed at becoming disruptive: Adobe, ING Bank, Nokia, Southern New Hampshire University, and T-Mobile, among them. Their stories, which she tells in this book, make it clear that organizations don’t have to be tech start-ups or have the latest innovations to transform. What they need to do is develop a disruptive mindset that permeates every aspect of their organization. Li lays out how to do this by focusing on three elements:

- A strategy designed to meet the needs of future customers
- Leadership that creates a movement to drive and sustain transformation
- A culture that is capable of thriving with disruptive change

Drawing on interviews with some of the most audacious people driving disruptive transformation today, Li will inspire other leaders to answer the call to lead disruptive transformation in their organizations, communities, and society.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

Published September 24, 2019

About the author

For the past two decades, Charlene Li has been helping people see the future. She’s the author of six books, including her latest, The Disruption Mindset: Why Some Businesses Transform While Others Fail. She also wrote the New York Times bestseller Open Leadership and co-authored the critically-acclaimed book, Groundswell.

Charlene is also an entrepreneur, the Founder and Senior Fellow at Altimeter, an analyst firm acquired in 2015 by Prophet. With over 20 years of experience advising Fortune 500 companies, she is an expert in digital transformation and strategy, customer experience, and the future of work. Charlene also serves on the regional board for YPO, a global network of CEOs.

Charlene is a sought-after speaker and has appeared at events ranging from TED and the World Business Forum to SxSW. She has appeared on 60 Minutes and PBS NewsHour and is frequently quoted by news outlets like The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and The Associated Press.

Charlene was named one of the Most Creative People in business by Fast Company and one of the Top 50 Leadership Innovators by Inc., Charlene graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received her MBA from Harvard Business School. She lives in San Francisco.

Reviews

[Jessica Eveland · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up to a 3

[Diane]

I was fascinated by the real-world stories of successful disruptive transformation in The Disruption Mindset. We hear so much these days about disruption, but Charlene Li is able to explain in clear, simplified terms what it is and what it isn’t—while telling the tales of a few companies who were able to weather the storm and come out the other side on top, including T-Mobile, Adobe, and Southern New Hampshire University. Charlene Li is a bona fide expert in disruption and an excellent storyteller to boot. Highly recommend!

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

The word 'disruptive' carries a lot of baggage. To some, it may be viewed as a positive characteristic or condition, but to others, the characteristic is less than flattering and the condition is avoided at all costs. I hear the term thrown around a lot - and not just amongst the technology and marketing / communications folks, but across the cultural sector where I now work. Just this week, at various talks and meetings I attended or articles I read, I kept a manual count of the times 'disrupt' or 'disruptive' were mentioned - 57 times! Yet in each of those instances, the speaker or writer did not expand on what it meant to really be disruptive. How might you disrupt? Why do you disrupt? When is the right time to be disruptive? What do you do when thrust into disruption? Case studies often cite the good outcomes of a disruption mindset or condition, but quite often gloss over the bad and the ugly stages of what it means to disrupt.

The recently published book, The Disruption Mindset by Charlene Li answers what is needed to foster, participate, and benefit from having a disruption mindset. I had the pleasure of reading a copy of the book before it launched this week, and I found it the most instructive book on disruption that I have yet to come across. Through a series of stories, Li outlines the characteristics and conditions of and for disruption. Too often, the term 'disrupt' is associated with fears of chaos, but what Li has shown through well-researched case studies, is that structure and leadership accompany successful disruptive characteristics and conditions. Each chapter is complete with actionable, pragmatic ways to practice disruption. The featured stories are of some of the large tech organizations we are all familiar with (or think we are), but there are examples of disruption in other sectors that also get their day in the sun. I was pleasantly surprised to read about Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) and the chronicles of Max Hollein's career leading up to his current position as Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is often difficult to position stories of disruption within technology organizations to education or cultural organizations because these sectors find it difficult to relate to stories from Silicon Valley.

I highly recommend this book. I will be referencing this book in the months and years to come!

[Zoë Routh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful surprise! This is a well-written, well-researched piece of thought leadership on how to lead better in to the future. Disruption is part of that, but not as an nd in itself. Li's key premise is that disruption in order to cause growth is backwards. When we think about how we might double our impact or more, then this will cause disruption -it has to. We can't double our impact without changing the way we do things.

The secret to starting is obsessing about the future customer. It might be the same customer as today, or it might be a different customer altogether. Great premise. Where I felt we could have a bit more direction in the book is in HOW to identify the future customer. Research and doing an empathy map is the sum total of the recommendations :(

However this does not detract from the rest of the book which is solid. Leading a disruptive movement is inspirational and has me motivated to write my own manifesto, developing disruptive leaders gives us granular look at capabilities required, and disrupting culture is a great playbook to help bring people along the ride.

Good read, well-highlighted, and will be used henceforth. I am buying copies for my own disruptive community, Amplifiers, so we can get stuck in to doubling (and more) our impact. I recommend it!

[John Suh · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most valuable insights in this book is explaining why the future customers is a great way for organizations to start and to focus efforts on disruptive innovation. Future customers might be the existing customers but with changed needs. Other future customers can be new and could have different needs and wants than today's customers. Disruptive company's are willing to alienate their existing customers. While that might be obvious, leadership has the responsibility to get the entire organization aligned with satisfying future customers, not future technology, not future business models.

This is just one example of the many takeaways in this book. I'm sure I'll be referencing this book for years to come.

[Clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic exploration about what it takes to truly be disruptive in your industry. Li breaks down the disruptive mindset and covers topics including:
1. The next-generation customer versus today's reliable one
2. Ways to effectively evaluating your current business model so that you can shift to a new, more forward thinking one.
3. Ways to go about undertaking a massive cultural transformation.
4. Tactics for aligning your entire organization around the future customer experience and the changing business culture to execute that strategy.

The company I work for is hosting a webinar with Charlene Li in February 2020. I invite any one who has read and/or is reading this novel to this awesome opportunity! If interested, register here: https://bit.ly/38FYxqy

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book offers the conventional arc about the importance of disruption to capitalist organizations. There is the assumption throughout the argument that disruption creates positive transformation.

Significantly, this book was published in 2019. It is clear that no one could affirm the value of disruption after the pandemic. COVID-19 showed the consequences of disruption. The economic and social cost. Lives were destroyed by disruption.

This book offers a similar position to a text celebrating financial markets before the Global Financial Crisis. Playing with disruption to create 'growth' and 'transformation' may provide great copy for leadership seminars. Living it - is a whole different matter.

[Mustafa Ayhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a lot of technological products and many investmensts are done by companies but they can not transform themselves. They need to develop a disruptive mindset that is deployed and internalized by everyone in the organization. The Disruption Mindset explains us how to do it by focusing on three elements: a strategy designed to meet the needs of future customers; leadership that creates a movement to drive and sustain transformation; and a culture that thrives on disruptive change.
I recommend all business leaders to read it!

[Robert Bogue]

Disruption isn’t the goal. Growth and success are. However, the path to growth often leads through disruption. Charlene Li explains in The Disruption Mindset: Why Some Organizations Transform While Others Fail how to navigate the disruption and even encourage the right disruption to lead to the desired exponential growth.

Read more

[Mikel Mangold · Rating 5 out of 5]

-> it takes more than an author to disrupt the world.
Charlene share her thoughts about how to disrupt a company’s culture and strategy.
Our world today need transparency, trust, a sense of belonging and constant communication.

I loved her example with Adobe, southwest airline, T-Mobile and more.
I enjoyed joining the community as well because it makes this book alive.

Thanks Charlene !!!

[Ahmad · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read book for every entrepreneur, CEO, managers, employees and self employed. It's a book for everyone.
The author has provided great insights step by steps on how to create disruptive changes and maintain them. There are countless examples from several organizations that failed or succeeded to learn from.

[Scott Wozniak · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book isn't wrong, but it isn't deep or original. It's a restatement of what's already been said--and a fairly surface level version at that. Meh.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't be disruptive to be disruptive. Get big and leverage transparency to be disruptive while cultivating a positive culture.

[Mukesh Gupta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overview:

I got a digital preview copy of this book via NetGalley. The book is about is basically about what do organizations (typically incumbent organizations) do to be successful at the business of disruption, the assumption being that it is unusual for the incumbents to disrupt themselves or their industries.

What is the book about:

Charlene gleams some key insights from some case studies of incumbent organizations, which either lost their way or got disrupted found their way to disrupt themselves and in some cases their industries. There is a great deal of learning for large organizations that are operating in industries that are under flux from these case studies.

The case studies are from T-Mobile, nokia, McKinsey, Adobe, Piedmont Healthcare, Stadel Museum, Southern New Hampshire University, ING, Microsoft, South West Airlines & Amazon. Some of these are also her long-time clients, which gives her the ability to really see what was happening within these organizations.

Based on the insights from these case studies, she is able to share a framework that large organizations can use to build the ability to create a disruptive transformation amongst themselves and their industries.

Ease of reading:

The book is an easy read. The case studies are well researched and provide some very valuable insights that can be used in certain situations.

The book oscillates between being a case study (Story telling format) and a prescriptive advice (do these 1, 2, 3 things to achieve this) and the author has been able to manage this switch back and forth quite well, without it becoming jarring and interrupting the flow of reading.

The language used is fairly simple and tried to avoid jargons as far as possible, thereby making it easy to read.

What I loved about the book:

Some of the cases that the author picked were very fresh and even those that were pretty well researched and covered in many books, she was able to find at least a few new insights which meant that I actually read the entire case study and not just skim through.

What I did not like about the book:

In most books like these, the author picks up something that an organisation did that worked for that organisation, at that particular moment in time, given the exact conditions that they were effective in and extrapolate them to be relevant for all organisations in all conditions and at all times. And then combine that with something else that was learnt from some other case study.

What this allows the authors to do is create a framework that looks coherent and makes sense when looked at, but is a nightmare when you try to implement the framework in totality as it gets too complicated to pull off. So, while there is some learning for every leader to implement, it is very difficult to implement the entire framework. This is something that is not just a challenge with this book but with this entire genre. So, within the confines of this genre, I really like what Charlene has achieved.

What I learnt from the book:

There are few things that I really learnt from the book.

The entire concept of building strategy based on who your future customers would be instead of just extrapolating from where an organisation’s current state is insightful. If we can clearly articulate who the future customers will be and where do they congregate, that can allow an organisation to leverage this insight into something really big.

She shares the key advantages that incumbents have over start-ups trying to disrupt them and their industry is something that most large incumbents don’t focus too much on. The strategy that most large incumbents seem to follow is to try and act like a start-up, when they are not one. They try to compete with start-ups on their game rather than playing to their own strengths.

What has changed as a result of reading this book:

My concept of what disruption is has changed due to a single insight from the book and I quote –

“Disruption doesn’t create growth. Growth creates disruption”.

Hence, we would be better off to go after growth and disruption will follow and not the other way around.

What would I have done differently:

The only thing I would have done differently is to sign off the book with a case study that actually brings every element of the framework together elegantly, if one exists. Apart from that, given the genre of the book, I think that the book does work really well.

[Jenel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is written for the "leaders" who are already in charge and who are willing and wanting to change both their styles and their companies.

But for anyone who aspires to be a leader, well... not so much. The advise for those who are already leaders is not always good advise for those still in the trenches. That said there are details in some chapters regarding Flux vs Stuck cultures and how openness can work (when allowed from the top down). The image of an Org Chart vs How work actually gets done is something I've had to communicate many, many times. And while the How work actually gets done is accepted because it works the pat hierarchy is what management always reverted to when funding decisions needed to be made. ING's Orange Code Our Behaviors chart is good advise for anyone at any level in an organization. But in many organizations it can be difficult to implement from the bottom up or even cross-functionally in a culture that doesn't value or understand cross-funtionality.

There's a lot of hope in this book for how things could be. There's also a lot left unsaid about how established leaders will often have to be ruthless in how they use and move people about and out in search of financially beneficial disruption.

[Rebeca Núñez · Rating 4 out of 5]

** Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with the digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review **

Es muy interesante como guía, pero lo que mas me gusto, es el uso de ejemplos, casos reales, que ayudan mucho a entender, y sobre todo a ver en la practica, los conceptos expuestos por la autora.
El libro no es muy extenso, pero esta lleno de información, por lo que recomendaría mas de una lectura, aun siendo no muy complejo para leer.

[Darya · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are interested in digit transformation of need skills advice, go for this book. Digital transformation is a part of disruptive strategy. In modern world, leaders need to drive the change for better of their businesses and employees. I loved the research examples. I recorded book to leaders, marketing managers and business owners alike.

[Rick Yvanovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disruptive Transformation- gotta love it

Sometimes it’s hard to see the wood for the trees and I found this book with a key aha and that’s Disruptive Transformation.

Simple enough concept yet I like many others didn’t see it. Now I see!

Next step is the much harder putting it into actions forever. Looking forward to the journey.