If Good is the Enemy of Great, is Great the Enemy of Disruption?

The list of leading companies that failed when confronted with disruptive changes in technology and market structure is a long one…One theme common to all of these failures…is that the decisions that led to failure were made when the leaders in question were widely regarded as among the best companies in the world.

-- The Innovator's Dilemma

Bottom line: When effective disruption takes place, then the entire value scale (for your product/service) is increased.

Doing one thing very well separates your product/service from your competition's while defining your brand for your customers. Take what you do very well (better than anyone) and do not be afraid to change it in order to create a disruptive product. If you do not, then you might one day suddenly realize you no longer have a relevant, great product/service.

Grade Your Product (Where are you now?)

Step 1:
What do you do well? Why do your customers buy from you?

Step 2:
Grade your product or service. Good or great? This gives you a starting point.

Step 3:
Depending on what grade you give your product, your next step is to move your product to the next level.

The push pin on the above graph represents where you might place your product or service.

The Difference between "Good to Great" and "Great to Disruption"

Once you move your product/service from good to great, how do you move your product/service from great to disruption?

The "pre-disruption" scale below represents a product (Product A_alpha) increasing in quality over time -- from good to great.

The "post-disruption" scale below represents a significantly altered version of Product A_alpha. Product A_beta is immediately more valuable than Product A_alpha and has potential to increase in quality over time -- from a good to great disruptive product.

A few important points to note regarding the two scales:

1. Both scales show the "quality" of the same core product over a number of months.

2. The second scale -- Product A_beta -- refers to what Product A_alpha looks like after the company made changes to their core product in order to create a disruptive product (Product A_beta).

3. When effective disruption takes place, then the entire value scale is increased. Therefore, the disruptive version of Product A (Product A_beta) is more valuable than Product A_alpha even when Product A_alpha was a great product! Why? Because Product A_beta's disruptive nature (if effective) significantly decreases the value of the greatness of Product A_alpha.

Conclusion: Identify what you do (or can do) very well -- better than your competitors -- and become good and then great. Then stop focusing on being marginally greater; instead, focus on changing what you do or offer so that it becomes a disruptive product/service. It will disrupt the entire market, which includes your formerly "great" product/service -- and you will benefit greatly because you will create a brand new, larger market that includes most of your current customers as well as new customers.