Coaching for Leaders

761: Notice Disruption and Innovate Through It, with Steve Blank


Listen Later

Steve Blank: Blind to Disruption

Steve Blank is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford and co-founder of the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. Credited with launching the Lean Startup movement and the curriculums for the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps and Hacking for Defense and Diplomacy, he’s changed how startups are built, how entrepreneurship is taught, how science is commercialized, and how companies and the government innovate. Steve is the author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany and The Startup Owner’s Manual and is the author of his recent article at steveblank.com: Blind to Disruption: The CEOs Who Missed the Future.

Leaders may see the future coming, but we aren’t always incentivized to act on it. In this conversation, Steve and I discuss what we can learn from the common patterns of disruption so we don’t miss what’s next.

Key Points
  • In the 1890s, there were approximately 4,000 carriage and wagon makers in the United States. Only one company made the transition to automobiles.
  • In each of the three companies that survived, it was the founders, not hired CEOs, that drove the transition.
  • Studebaker recognized that it wasn’t in the business of carriages; it was in the business of mobility.
  • Clayton Christensen taught us that disruption begins with inferior products that incumbents don’t take seriously.
  • The real problem isn’t that companies can’t see the future. It’s that they are structurally disincentivized to act on it.
  • Parsing innovation theatre vs. innovation means paying attention to what’s actually shipping. If nothing is and you want to innovate, look elsewhere.
  • Bubbles in the market are normal. Timing may be off, but that doesn’t mean disruption isn’t happening.
  • Resources Mentioned
    • Blind to Disruption: The CEOs Who Missed the Future by Steve Blank
    • Related Episodes
      • How to Start Seeing Around Corners, with Rita McGrath (episode 430)
      • How to Build an Invincible Company, with Alex Osterwalder (episode 470)
      • How to Pivot Quickly, with Steve Blank (episode 476)
      • Discover More

        Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

        ...more
        View all episodesView all episodes
        Download on the App Store

        Coaching for LeadersBy Dave Stachowiak

        • 4.8
        • 4.8
        • 4.8
        • 4.8
        • 4.8

        4.8

        1,391 ratings


        More shows like Coaching for Leaders

        View all
        The Look & Sound of Leadership by Essential Communications - Tom Henschel

        The Look & Sound of Leadership

        1,163 Listeners

        Teaching in Higher Ed by Bonni Stachowiak

        Teaching in Higher Ed

        368 Listeners

        HBR IdeaCast by Harvard Business Review

        HBR IdeaCast

        1,836 Listeners

        How to Be Awesome at Your Job by How to be Awesome at Your Job

        How to Be Awesome at Your Job

        1,030 Listeners

        7 Minute Leadership by Paul Falavolito

        7 Minute Leadership

        93 Listeners

        Worklife with Adam Grant by TED

        Worklife with Adam Grant

        9,163 Listeners

        Speak Up: Develop Your Executive Presence & Leadership Communication Style by Laura Camacho

        Speak Up: Develop Your Executive Presence & Leadership Communication Style

        97 Listeners

        Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast by John Maxwell

        Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast

        379 Listeners

        The Modern Manager by Mamie Kanfer Stewart

        The Modern Manager

        187 Listeners

        Inside the Strategy Room by McKinsey & Company

        Inside the Strategy Room

        167 Listeners

        No Bullsh!t Leadership by Martin G Moore

        No Bullsh!t Leadership

        124 Listeners

        The Anxious Achiever by Morra Aarons-Mele

        The Anxious Achiever

        572 Listeners

        A Bit of Optimism by Simon Sinek

        A Bit of Optimism

        2,204 Listeners

        Coaching Real Leaders by Harvard Business Review / Muriel Wilkins

        Coaching Real Leaders

        676 Listeners

        HBR On Strategy by Harvard Business Review

        HBR On Strategy

        81 Listeners

        HBR On Leadership by Harvard Business Review

        HBR On Leadership

        169 Listeners