When working in long established industries a common response to innovation and change is “Because that’s the way we’ve always done it!” There is usually some underlying framework that is well established and understood cannot be changed – until someone comes along and does just that.
McKinsey and Company, world leaders in consulting to organisations, have addressed this in an article in their most recent McKinsey Quarterly (Read the full article here) by Marc de Jong and Menno van Dijk. In this article, McKinsey challenge the perception that established industry players cannot adapt. In fact, they ask why it is that often major changes to established practices have to be introduced by outsiders. Instead, it is those already in the industry who should be best placed to develop new ways of doing things.
Listed below are the 5 major steps to challenging the status quo in your industry, and how to develop new business models. The article expands on these and is well worth the read.
- Outline the dominant business model in your industry.
- Dissect the most important long-held belief into its supporting notions.
- Turn an underlying belief on its head.
- Sanity-test your reframe.
- Translate the reframed belief into your industry’s new business model
Further, the team at McKinsey propose that there are four places to reframe, listing these as:
- Innovating in customer relationships: From loyalty to empowerment
- Innovating in activities: From efficient to intelligent
- Innovating in resources: From ownership to access
- Innovating in costs: From low cost to no cost
Think about your business and the industry you are in – what part of the framework could you challenge to create a new and better way of doing things?
If you would further information on how Avondale Business School can help your organisation, contact Warrick Long
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