In 2010, at a launch event in San Francisco, Steve Jobs introduced the first-generation iPad. This new product shook the entire PC industry at the time. Today, Apple is about to start selling the 10th generation iPad, available in four colors: red, yellow, blue and gray. But there was no launch event for it.
The lack of a launch event itself speaks volumes. Apart from price and color, this generation of iPad really has nothing to offer. And it can’t help but remind people of Nokia: “Technology is based on changing shells.”
Nokia, once the dominant player in the mobile phone market, was disrupted by Apple’s iPhone more than a decade ago. But now this company known for its innovation has returned to “technology based on changing colors.” This scene can’t help but make people sigh. Why do big companies always get stuck in the “dead cycle” of “cyclical law”?
But this question has long ceased to be an unsolved problem. In fact, someone had already given the answer at the end of the last century.
Clayton Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School, proposed the theory of “disruptive innovation.” He argued that it was management itself that hindered innovation. This is known as “The Innovator’s Dilemma.”
Going further behind repetitive behavior there is often a system. And according to the principles of systems thinking as long as the system structure remains unchanged behavior will inevitably repeat itself.
Therefore true change is not aimed at behavior but at structure. For businesses it’s not about blaming employees for lacking innovation consciousness. On the contrary only by thoroughly adjusting organizational structure business model and value evaluation indicators can innovation truly happen and become sustainable.
Today businesses face an external environment full of change and uncertainty. Faced with a once-in-a-century great change Chinese businesses must take the path of innovation.
Only by breaking the original structure can we avoid the dead cycle.
Therefore for today’s business managers this is not only important but also very urgent!