Thales Teixeira Introduces "Decoupling" as the Customer-centric Approach to Digital Disruption
Summary
TLDRThe speaker shares insights into the nature of business disruption, using personal experiences from startups like Facebook and Netflix. Originally studying the economics of attention, they describe the disruptive processes as not just technology-driven but heavily reliant on business model innovation. The core idea is the 'customer value chain'—a sequence of value-creating, value-eroding, and value-capturing activities. Disruptors identify and improve specific activities, known as decoupling, separating them from full value chain control. Examples include Birchbox and Amazon's showrooming. Disruption waves have moved from unbundling media to disintermediation and now decoupling. Successful startups target specific customer activities, reducing cost, time, and effort, thus gaining a competitive edge over established players. Big corporations can respond by re-coupling or rebalancing their strategies to adapt. Ultimately, it's about improving customer-centric processes to disrupt markets, where successful disruptors capture previously leaked value from incumbents.
Takeaways
- 🌧️ Staying out in the rain is less appealing than learning about disruption.
- 🚀 Visiting startups like Facebook and Netflix sparked the journey into understanding disruption.
- 🔗 Disruption isn't just technology—it's about decoupling customer activities.
- 🎯 Focus on improving one customer activity to gain a competitive edge.
- 🏢 Big companies must adapt by re-coupling and rebalancing their strategies.
- 📈 Three disruption waves: unbundling, disintermediation, and decoupling.
- 🧩 Identify customer value, cost, and effort to create disruption.
- 🛠️ Successful disruptors specialize in customer value chain activities.
- 📊 Disruptors are valued based on the innovation type—creating, eroding, or charging value.
- 📚 Recipe for disruption: Map, identify, find weak links, reduce costs, anticipate responses.
Timeline
- 00:00:00 - 00:05:00
The speaker thanks the audience and sets the context by discussing his journey in learning about disruption over the past seven years, starting with visits to prominent startups like Facebook and Netflix. He learned that many companies, despite creating groundbreaking technologies, failed to survive due to not understanding the patterns of disruption.
- 00:05:00 - 00:10:00
The speaker explains digital disruption, which involves substantial shifts in market share due to new players entering the market. He identified that disruptions occur in waves with distinct characteristics, such as unbundling, disintermediation, and the latest wave, decoupling, where startups focus on one activity within the customer value chain and improve it significantly.
- 00:10:00 - 00:15:00
Decoupling involves startups enhancing one activity in the consumer value chain, like evaluation or purchase, without handling the entire chain. Examples like Birchbox and Amazon demonstrate how focusing on evaluation or purchase can lead to significant industry changes, such as showrooming or subscription models.
- 00:15:00 - 00:20:00
The speaker explains how decoupling plays out across various industries, highlighting companies like Turo and Zipcar in the automotive sector, which offer alternatives for car usage without the burden of ownership or maintenance. These innovations disrupt by rethinking the traditional value chain through digital solutions.
- 00:20:00 - 00:25:00
The concept of decoupling is further elaborated with examples from the media and insurance industries, illustrating how startups like Aereo and Trove simplify or eliminate cumbersome activities. The speaker emphasizes the importance of focusing on customer activities that are either value-creating or value-eroding, and how startups can capitalize on these distinctions.
- 00:25:00 - 00:30:00
There are three types of decoupling—value creating, value eroding, and value charging. The speaker outlines how each type can lead to successful startups, using examples from companies that have decoupled parts of the customer experience. This strategic focus can determine a startup's potential for large valuations.
- 00:30:00 - 00:35:00
Startups can grow significantly by targeting specific customer activities. The speaker advocates for identifying weak links in the customer value chain, enhancing specialization forces, and leveraging these opportunities to build successful business models. The discussion underscores that specialization and reducing costs in time, effort, and money can attract more customers.
- 00:35:00 - 00:40:00
The speaker defines a process for crafting business models around decoupling, recommending mapping out customer activities, identifying the type of value in each, finding weak links, and creating advantages by lowering associated costs. He suggests that executing these steps can increase the chances of startup success.
- 00:40:00 - 00:45:00
The speaker advises on how established incumbents can respond to disruptions by either re-coupling activities that have been decoupled by startups or by decoupling themselves to adapt to new market dynamics. Best Buy is highlighted as a case where the company successfully adapted by changing its business model to handle showrooming.
- 00:45:00 - 00:52:33
Lastly, the speaker discusses myths about digital disruption and emphasizes that the true drivers are customer needs rather than the startups or technologies themselves. By focusing on customer value chains and business model innovation rather than purely on technology, companies can better navigate the competitive landscape.
Mind Map
Video Q&A
What is the key concept of disruption discussed in the talk?
The key concept of disruption discussed is decoupling, where startups identify and improve specific customer activities rather than offering all activities, which disrupts incumbents.
How did the speaker begin their journey in understanding disruption?
The speaker began by visiting startups like Facebook, Netflix, and Airbnb, analyzing their approaches to disrupt industries.
What is the customer value chain?
The customer value chain consists of all activities a customer goes through in acquiring goods or services, which can be value-creating, value-eroding, or value-capturing.
What are some examples of decoupling mentioned?
Examples include Birchbox for beauty products, Amazon's showrooming tactic, and Turo for car-sharing, where they focus on improving specific activities.
What is the third wave of digital disruption?
The third wave of digital disruption is characterized by startups decoupling customer activities, focusing on improving specific areas rather than providing the entire value chain.
What does decoupling mean in the context of disruption?
Decoupling refers to separating and improving specific activities in the customer value chain, rather than controlling the entire process, to gain competitive advantage.
Why did some companies like Kodak and Nokia fail despite having technologies?
They failed not due to lack of technology, but because they could not adapt their business models to the changing market and customer needs.
How should big companies respond to disruption?
Big companies can respond by re-coupling, which means they try to integrate the separated activities, or preemptively adapt their business models to live with the changes.
What is a practical example of decoupling in the talk?
A practical example is Trov insurance, allowing users to insure possessions with a simple app swipe, thus separating insurance processes from traditional cumbersome methods.
How do companies create disruption according to the speaker?
Companies create disruption by focusing on customer activities that can be done better, either adding value, removing value-eroding activities, or changing value-capture dynamics.
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- 00:00:00good afternoon thank you for being here
- 00:00:02I know the alternative is staying out in
- 00:00:05the rain so maybe the bar is low but I
- 00:00:07hope that in the next 45 minutes I can
- 00:00:09show to you a little bit about what I
- 00:00:12learned in the past six or seven years
- 00:00:15since visiting the first startup ever
- 00:00:18visited at Harvard Business School I was
- 00:00:20doing research on the economics of
- 00:00:21attention and so a startup that was very
- 00:00:24critical to the attention medium decided
- 00:00:29to invite me out this was 2010 actually
- 00:00:33and so the startup in in Palo Alto
- 00:00:35invited me to go give a talk and I
- 00:00:38remember entering their building and
- 00:00:40there are a lot of people taking
- 00:00:41pictures I remember seeing the founder
- 00:00:43CEO this guy called mark he he dropped
- 00:00:46out of Harvard to open this startup and
- 00:00:49he was sitting in his flip-flops he was
- 00:00:52standing up typing in his keyboard and
- 00:00:55and I gave a talk about the economics of
- 00:00:58attention but really what I wanted to
- 00:00:59know about the startup called Facebook
- 00:01:02was how were they planning to disrupt
- 00:01:04the social media industry because there
- 00:01:06were social media websites before they
- 00:01:09said they were doing it very differently
- 00:01:11and they were unabashedly saying this is
- 00:01:13our plan so what we're gonna do and they
- 00:01:14told me a little bit about it and so I
- 00:01:16just wrote it down and then a year and a
- 00:01:19half later I was invited to give a talk
- 00:01:20at Netflix and after I gave a talk I
- 00:01:22when I talked to the executives how are
- 00:01:24you guys planning to disrupt the video
- 00:01:27streaming industry and they said oh
- 00:01:28professor we're gonna do it very
- 00:01:29differently this is what we're planning
- 00:01:31to do and I just wrote it down and then
- 00:01:33I visited Airbnb gave a talk asked them
- 00:01:36how are you planning to disrupt the
- 00:01:38hospitality industry they said oh we're
- 00:01:40doing it very different from all the
- 00:01:41other players this is what we're
- 00:01:42planning to do and the more I heard were
- 00:01:44doing it very differently the more I
- 00:01:46realized they were doing all the same
- 00:01:47thing they were executing it very
- 00:01:50differently because they were in
- 00:01:51different industries but their approach
- 00:01:53was so common that I started thinking
- 00:01:57that there was a pattern a process for
- 00:01:59disruption and in half an hour I try to
- 00:02:01show you a little bit of this process
- 00:02:03but uh but going back a little bit is
- 00:02:07this idea of really trying to understand
- 00:02:09what is disruption there was a lot of
- 00:02:13talk about
- 00:02:14since startups as well as big companies
- 00:02:16but once you would look at examples and
- 00:02:20basically the story has been technology
- 00:02:23is the disrupter you create a technology
- 00:02:26in your disrupt markets right Apple
- 00:02:29Tesla IBM a way back in the day so many
- 00:02:33new technologies but once you look at
- 00:02:35many examples of companies you find
- 00:02:38something interesting kodak created the
- 00:02:41first digital camera yet it did not
- 00:02:45survive
- 00:02:46Nokia created most of the patents that
- 00:02:49are actually available in the cell
- 00:02:51phones that you guys are using whether
- 00:02:53it be Samsung or Apple Nokia created
- 00:02:56these patents yeah my scanner created
- 00:02:58the first cat scanner and Sears created
- 00:03:01one of the marvelous new technologies in
- 00:03:03the beginning of the 1900s which was
- 00:03:06called a mail-order catalog for the
- 00:03:09first time ever you could actually buy
- 00:03:10things without going to the store and
- 00:03:14then lastly Xerox as you all know
- 00:03:15created many of the technologies of the
- 00:03:18PC and the network computer yet
- 00:03:21what happened something happened and
- 00:03:23many of them didn't survive Sears is
- 00:03:26going down the drain and Xerox is a
- 00:03:28shadow of its former self
- 00:03:29so really penny on technology as the
- 00:03:33root cause of disruption these companies
- 00:03:35develop the technologies they didn't
- 00:03:37survive so my question is why what
- 00:03:40happened not only these companies did
- 00:03:44not survive but the CEOs that were at
- 00:03:47the helm of these companies at the top
- 00:03:49they don't even know what happened to
- 00:03:52them in the process of falling off the
- 00:03:55cliff this is this is Stephen Elop he is
- 00:04:00the former CEO of Nokia and there's a
- 00:04:02video on youtube of him t rise saying
- 00:04:06among other things we didn't do anything
- 00:04:08wrong but somehow we lost even after the
- 00:04:12fact he didn't know how to explain it
- 00:04:13and look at the global market share of
- 00:04:15Nokia in the early 2000s it was 55% of
- 00:04:21all cell phones in the world were Nokia
- 00:04:24phones last year 1.1 percent
- 00:04:28pretty much only if you're in Africa you
- 00:04:29will ever buy a Nokia phone and look at
- 00:04:32how much the fall went fast very very
- 00:04:35fast the fallen market shares what is
- 00:04:39disruption you know as academics we tend
- 00:04:42to say ok if there's a phenomenon we
- 00:04:44want to study we need to really clearly
- 00:04:46define it and this is my definition of
- 00:04:49disruption
- 00:04:50so disruption happens in any company any
- 00:04:53country in any industry when two things
- 00:04:55happen there is a substantial change of
- 00:04:58market shares we're not talking about
- 00:05:00one two three percent point of market
- 00:05:03shares we're talking about 10 20 30 in
- 00:05:05some industries in some countries 40
- 00:05:08percent of market share switched hands
- 00:05:11from what we call incumbents the big
- 00:05:13established companies to these startups
- 00:05:15these disruptors in a short period of
- 00:05:18time less than 10 years sometimes eight
- 00:05:21sometimes seven sometimes five years big
- 00:05:23companies lost dramatic amount of market
- 00:05:26share to so-called disruptors tech
- 00:05:29companies and startups started stealing
- 00:05:32this and really I wanted to understand
- 00:05:34what is causing this how can we
- 00:05:37understand this phenomenon at a broader
- 00:05:39level right initially I thought as
- 00:05:42everything in life as everything
- 00:05:45critical and important in life it
- 00:05:46happens consistently over time every
- 00:05:51year something happens in certain
- 00:05:53markets in certain countries in certain
- 00:05:56industries and big companies start
- 00:05:58losing a little bit of market share and
- 00:06:00then year after year after year this
- 00:06:02pattern continuously habits well when I
- 00:06:06look back to the history of the internet
- 00:06:07what I realized was that there are
- 00:06:10so-called waves of digital disruption
- 00:06:12meaning nothing happens for a few years
- 00:06:15and then suddenly something happens and
- 00:06:16then nothing happens for a few more
- 00:06:18years and then suddenly something
- 00:06:19happens that affects many industries
- 00:06:21right and so when you go back to the
- 00:06:24history of the internet 1994 when the
- 00:06:26internet becomes more popular there was
- 00:06:28this first wave of digital disruption
- 00:06:30and we now call it unbundling it
- 00:06:33affected many companies like media
- 00:06:35content companies advertising movie
- 00:06:38songs everything that could be
- 00:06:39transformed into digital
- 00:06:41the zeros and ones digitize a book was
- 00:06:44being unbundled because you would before
- 00:06:47you would have to buy kind of a bundles
- 00:06:51of products and unbundling was breaking
- 00:06:54down the products breaking down a news
- 00:06:56into bits and pieces and sold in parts
- 00:06:58you don't buy the CD anymore you buy
- 00:07:00song after song in this affected many
- 00:07:03industries the second wave happened
- 00:07:05around 2000 in the second wave we call
- 00:07:08it disintermediation it was slightly
- 00:07:10different from the first wave in which
- 00:07:12it wasn't breaking down a product into
- 00:07:14pieces and sold in parts like now you
- 00:07:17consume one song on one or one book or
- 00:07:20you consume one one episode of a Netflix
- 00:07:24show but it was breaking apart the
- 00:07:27supply chain the companies that source
- 00:07:30and buy products from each other before
- 00:07:32you would go to a travel agency and the
- 00:07:35travel agency would get you the airfare
- 00:07:38the hotel the activities now most of us
- 00:07:41go directly to the providers
- 00:07:43disintermediating the travel agent in
- 00:07:45the year 2000 procurement services
- 00:07:48financial services in the industries
- 00:07:50there was disintermediation in the sense
- 00:07:53that these suppliers went directly to
- 00:07:55the end customers but what I've
- 00:07:58identified in this these last few years
- 00:08:01that there has been a third wave of
- 00:08:04digital disruption that has affected
- 00:08:06many more industries like electronics
- 00:08:08consumer goods transportation than
- 00:08:10business services before I explain to
- 00:08:13you what characterizes its third wave I
- 00:08:15need to explain to you a concept that we
- 00:08:18teach at Harvard Business School pretty
- 00:08:20much in the first week of the MBA
- 00:08:22program and which is called the customer
- 00:08:24value chain and the customer value chain
- 00:08:28at Harvard we use the decision-making
- 00:08:31process but I'll explain to you why I
- 00:08:32call it the customer value chain but
- 00:08:34imagine this you need to go buy a
- 00:08:36flat-screen TV today most likely you're
- 00:08:38going to go to Best Buy
- 00:08:39why because you can evaluate all the
- 00:08:41options of flat-screen TVs then you can
- 00:08:44choose the option that you want 50 inch
- 00:08:47Samsung then you go pay for it you take
- 00:08:50it home you consume it in a few years
- 00:08:52you dispose of it throw it away
- 00:08:55or resell it or something else right so
- 00:08:57this is the value change for me as the
- 00:08:59customer of a flat-screen TV and Best
- 00:09:03Buy the incumbents in electronics does
- 00:09:05all this on my behalf it fulfills these
- 00:09:07activities for me if I were to buy
- 00:09:09beauty products I can go to Sephora and
- 00:09:12evaluate choose purchase consume and
- 00:09:14dispose of beauty products as well and
- 00:09:16if I wanted to consume video games
- 00:09:17Electronic Arts is the incumbent I can
- 00:09:20do all these with Electronic Arts this
- 00:09:23third wave of digital disruption is
- 00:09:25characterized by startups looking at
- 00:09:27this customer value chain and
- 00:09:30identifying one activity that they say I
- 00:09:33think I can do this activity better for
- 00:09:36the customer for example in 2010 a
- 00:09:39start-up out of Harvard called Birchbox
- 00:09:43asked the question why do women men as
- 00:09:47well but mostly women need to go to the
- 00:09:49Sephora store to sample beauty products
- 00:09:51obviously you need to sample because
- 00:09:53what is good in my skin or my hair might
- 00:09:55be differently from what's good for you
- 00:09:57so simply is important but why do we
- 00:09:59need to go to the store they decided to
- 00:10:01put samples of beauty products in a box
- 00:10:03it shipped it to people's houses for $10
- 00:10:05a month in a sense they decoupled they
- 00:10:08broke apart the customer value chain and
- 00:10:11offered only the evaluation piece they
- 00:10:13said sample with us once you get it from
- 00:10:15home and you realize what you like in
- 00:10:17your skin you want to buy the full-size
- 00:10:18item you can go buy two at Sephora or
- 00:10:21buy at Amazon right they didn't do
- 00:10:24everything in the value chain when
- 00:10:26Amazon switched from books into going
- 00:10:30into new markets they chose electronics
- 00:10:32but they knew people needed to try
- 00:10:34electronics product test it out right
- 00:10:37see the sound the image and so what they
- 00:10:39did is they created an app that allowed
- 00:10:41you to go to the Best Buy store evaluate
- 00:10:45and choose the TV that you want but then
- 00:10:47then pull out your phone take a picture
- 00:10:49of the product or scan the barcode or
- 00:10:51plug in the information and see if
- 00:10:53Amazon has a cheaper price online and
- 00:10:55you can potentially buy it if so right
- 00:10:57there on the spot what we call
- 00:10:58showrooming today right so Amazon let
- 00:11:02Best Buy take care of evaluation and
- 00:11:04choosey but said we want you to purchase
- 00:11:06with us
- 00:11:07and then lastly Zynga was a
- 00:11:09company now it's so common with Zynga
- 00:11:11was the first company to say why do
- 00:11:12people need to buy the videogame before
- 00:11:15they play it what if they don't like it
- 00:11:16what if they don't want to keep playing
- 00:11:18it and so they created the premium types
- 00:11:20of video games so this is the third way
- 00:11:23decoupling is the breaking of the links
- 00:11:26between the customer activities often by
- 00:11:28a digital player that have been
- 00:11:29traditionally provided together the
- 00:11:31incumbent company provides all those
- 00:11:32activities a startup says we're going to
- 00:11:35do this activity better let me give you
- 00:11:38a few more examples this is not really
- 00:11:40this new right even in the year 2000 if
- 00:11:44we remember in the year 2000 a new
- 00:11:49technology came out but it was very very
- 00:11:51similar to what was available before it
- 00:11:53was a startup that said well what is the
- 00:11:56value chain of people watching TV they
- 00:11:59want to watch the shows in the process
- 00:12:01they have to watch the ads and so TiVo
- 00:12:03came in and said look why don't you buy
- 00:12:05our DVR recorder and now you can watch
- 00:12:08the shows and fast-forward through the
- 00:12:10ads decoupling these activities and in
- 00:12:122015
- 00:12:13Aereo came out and saying you don't even
- 00:12:15need to buy a DVR you can just go online
- 00:12:17sign up with us tell us what shows you
- 00:12:21like what channels you like we'll record
- 00:12:23them for you and will automatically take
- 00:12:25out these ads and will stream it to
- 00:12:27wherever you are are you at home at work
- 00:12:29traveling in a hotel you can stream the
- 00:12:31shows without the ads decoupling these
- 00:12:34activities in the insurance industry you
- 00:12:39know I'm I'm from Brazil as Michael said
- 00:12:42imagine my colleagues telling me Tallis
- 00:12:44I want to go to Brazil I want to go to
- 00:12:46Rio I want to go up the favelas where
- 00:12:48all the poor people live I want to take
- 00:12:50pictures of them I'm gonna take my
- 00:12:52$1,800 camera and start taking pictures
- 00:12:54of them I'm gonna tell the look be
- 00:12:56careful you might not come back with
- 00:12:58your camera all right what you should do
- 00:13:01is you should get some insurance for the
- 00:13:03camera in case that happens so procure
- 00:13:04insurance go through all the insurance
- 00:13:06companies you know ask them for the
- 00:13:08contracts read the contracts compare
- 00:13:10sign up for the insurance pay for the
- 00:13:12premium cancel the insurance after when
- 00:13:14you come back from Brazil because you
- 00:13:15don't need that insurance anymore this
- 00:13:18is so complicated to be done my
- 00:13:20colleagues will probably say you know
- 00:13:21I'd like to
- 00:13:22I'm gonna risk it so a few years ago
- 00:13:25came trove T ROV there's an they have an
- 00:13:29app that you link this app to your email
- 00:13:33account so everything that you buy
- 00:13:34online automatically gets populated in
- 00:13:37the app see MacBook Canon bicycle guitar
- 00:13:40all of these things that I own right and
- 00:13:42so with trove it allows you to in the
- 00:13:45moment that you're sitting down in the
- 00:13:46airplane about to take off for Brazil
- 00:13:48you're only taking your camera you're
- 00:13:50not taking your bike anything else you
- 00:13:52want insurance for your camera what do
- 00:13:54you do to get insurance for that camera
- 00:13:56swipe right you swipe right now you're
- 00:14:00automatically being insured for that
- 00:14:01camera
- 00:14:02it costs a few dollars per day you
- 00:14:04travel to Brazil spent a few a week when
- 00:14:07you come back you're landing you don't
- 00:14:08need the insurance swipe the opposite
- 00:14:11and now you just turned off insurance so
- 00:14:14turning on and off insurance in your app
- 00:14:15just like turning on and off a switch
- 00:14:17just for the products you want trove
- 00:14:20allows you to decouple this process to
- 00:14:22only make sure you get the benefit in
- 00:14:24doing very few of the activities
- 00:14:26necessary in the auto industry why do we
- 00:14:30buy cars we buy cars because we want to
- 00:14:34drive cars in the process of driving
- 00:14:36cars we need to maintain cars change the
- 00:14:38oil change the tires do all sorts of
- 00:14:41unnecessary things that we don't like to
- 00:14:43do but we have to do we're forced to do
- 00:14:45it because we own the car so a start-up
- 00:14:48realized that the average American car
- 00:14:50is utilized meaning it is in motion
- 00:14:54transporting somebody four percent of
- 00:14:57the time 96 percent of the time it is
- 00:14:59park it is not being used for any real
- 00:15:02purpose so they realize that they said
- 00:15:04Toro came up with the idea that the
- 00:15:07world does not need more cars the world
- 00:15:09needs a better efficient allocation of
- 00:15:12crop cars across users and so Toro is a
- 00:15:15platform which if you have a car and
- 00:15:17you're not using your car you can say
- 00:15:19where your car is located what car it is
- 00:15:21and the days of the week or the hours of
- 00:15:24the day that you're not using it and
- 00:15:25people can rent each other's cars I do
- 00:15:27it all the time all right when I want to
- 00:15:30go up the mountain I get in a four-wheel
- 00:15:32drive when I want a convertible for the
- 00:15:34weekend I just rent it
- 00:15:36my neighbor's so decoupling now I can
- 00:15:38drive a car without having to buy or
- 00:15:40maintain the car right
- 00:15:42but Toro works if you're driving for a
- 00:15:44weekend or long distances because you
- 00:15:46have to go get the keys if you want to
- 00:15:48do it in a very short drive a few hours
- 00:15:50go to the grocery stores you'll probably
- 00:15:52use zip car right zip car they have a
- 00:15:54lot of embossed I don't know if they
- 00:15:56have it here in Miami but basically you
- 00:15:58have a little card and you can unlock
- 00:16:00the the open the doors with a little
- 00:16:04card by swiping it close to the the
- 00:16:07mirror of the car now if you don't want
- 00:16:09to drive if you want to be driven
- 00:16:10obviously you bur lift and the Boston
- 00:16:12taxi response to these ride-sharing
- 00:16:14businesses called curb but if you want
- 00:16:18to go from Miami to New York City most
- 00:16:23likely uber driver will not take you
- 00:16:25there and so a few years ago somebody
- 00:16:28from Paris said well there's a spot
- 00:16:31there that we could take and we're gonna
- 00:16:33call ourselves blahblah car and we're
- 00:16:35going to do city to city ride-sharing so
- 00:16:38basically you have to agree the time in
- 00:16:41the day and basically you buy
- 00:16:43essentially a seat in somebody else's
- 00:16:45car going from one city to the other
- 00:16:47right now my students looked at this and
- 00:16:50said there's so many options which one
- 00:16:52will the consumer want to take we don't
- 00:16:55know because you would have to go
- 00:16:56through all these apps and so they
- 00:16:58created urban Hale with the urban halo
- 00:17:00you go to urban Hale and you provide the
- 00:17:02information where you are where you want
- 00:17:04to go just like uber and they will give
- 00:17:05you the prices of all of these apps and
- 00:17:08you can compare it even with taxis right
- 00:17:10so they call themselves the kayak of
- 00:17:12ride-sharing and I use kayak a lot to
- 00:17:14compare prices of Airlines they further
- 00:17:16decoupled the process they help you
- 00:17:18compare the price they don't help you
- 00:17:20order or drive or provide any of the
- 00:17:22service so you can see how decoupling is
- 00:17:25practice choosing an activity saying
- 00:17:26we're gonna do this better not trying to
- 00:17:28do everything for the customer the key
- 00:17:30thing that I learned that these startups
- 00:17:34are doing are this today's most
- 00:17:37dangerous disruptors there are actually
- 00:17:39not stealing customers away Birchbox is
- 00:17:42not stealing completely their customer
- 00:17:44away from sephora people still go to
- 00:17:46Sephora what Birchbox is doing is
- 00:17:48stealing a customer
- 00:17:49activity so this is the big change in
- 00:17:52competition
- 00:17:53stealing customer activities from
- 00:17:55incumbent companies and that is the
- 00:17:57route the basis of why decoupling has
- 00:18:00become so pervasive what startups now as
- 00:18:04I was thinking about this I was looking
- 00:18:06at examples of decoupling in many
- 00:18:08different industries so my natural
- 00:18:10question was how many different types of
- 00:18:12decoupling are there is it just one
- 00:18:14every industry the same format or if I
- 00:18:17look at 50 different industries there'll
- 00:18:19be 50 different types of decoupling I
- 00:18:21don't know if you know this but at the
- 00:18:23Harvard Business School we teach only
- 00:18:25with the case method which means I give
- 00:18:27a case and I ask questions and my
- 00:18:29students have to answer these questions
- 00:18:31so the beauty of this is when I don't
- 00:18:33know the answer to a question yes my
- 00:18:35students I tell them you have to give me
- 00:18:38a good enough convincing answer because
- 00:18:40your grade will depend on the quality of
- 00:18:42your answer
- 00:18:43pretty cool huh so I told my students
- 00:18:47tell me how many different types are
- 00:18:49there and they help you find out the
- 00:18:52answer but they help me find something
- 00:18:57even more important than the answers the
- 00:18:59question that I wanted to understand and
- 00:19:02I'm gonna tell you what I found
- 00:19:04starting with an example I when I when I
- 00:19:08would go to HBS I would listen to the
- 00:19:10radio in my commute and every time I
- 00:19:13listen to the radio the reason I listen
- 00:19:16to the radio is that I wanted to listen
- 00:19:17to my favorite songs
- 00:19:19I liked my personal preference I like
- 00:19:22you too
- 00:19:24Tears for Fears Pearl Jam so 80s and 90s
- 00:19:27rock every time I listen to one of these
- 00:19:30songs I derive pleasure it's what I call
- 00:19:33a value creating activity for me
- 00:19:35every song Valley's being created for me
- 00:19:38but I can't have it always only
- 00:19:41listening to great songs every now and
- 00:19:43then Justin Bieber or Lady gaga pops up
- 00:19:46you might like it not me this is what I
- 00:19:49call a valley roadie activity if I could
- 00:19:52do away with it with a snap of a finger
- 00:19:53never having to listen to it I would
- 00:19:55unfortunately I can't it's a necessary
- 00:19:57evil to listening to radio and so
- 00:20:00listening to dislike songs of value
- 00:20:02roadie I also have to list
- 00:20:03the promoted songs that's how radio
- 00:20:05stations make money and I listen to ads
- 00:20:07these are to value capture activities
- 00:20:10this is how the business makes money so
- 00:20:13if you think about the customer value
- 00:20:16chain of any customer an individual a
- 00:20:20business the government in any industry
- 00:20:23selling any product or service I bet you
- 00:20:27can classify the activities that the
- 00:20:30customers have to go through in value
- 00:20:32creating value eroding and value
- 00:20:34capturing activities that's it ever in
- 00:20:39any industry in any place we customers
- 00:20:43go through activities of value creation
- 00:20:48value capture in value erosion in order
- 00:20:51to satisfy our needs and wants so all
- 00:20:57you can ever do for the benefits of your
- 00:20:59customer is one of three things you can
- 00:21:03either create more value for them you
- 00:21:05can reduce valley charging activities or
- 00:21:09you can eliminate value eroding
- 00:21:12activities do you want to fire more
- 00:21:15customers do one of these three things
- 00:21:17do you want to retain more customers do
- 00:21:20one of these three things you want to
- 00:21:22get them to be loyal do one of these
- 00:21:24three things you're being disrupted
- 00:21:26you're losing customers to the
- 00:21:27competition
- 00:21:28they are probably doing one of these
- 00:21:30things better than you right these are
- 00:21:33the three major avenues there's a
- 00:21:35thousand or maybe millions and millions
- 00:21:37of ways to execute on these three types
- 00:21:40but these are the three broad avenues
- 00:21:47what do I mean
- 00:21:48yeah Valley charging essentially you
- 00:21:51know how you as a customer have to pay
- 00:21:53for what you're getting very simple
- 00:21:55value Rhodey let me give you a few more
- 00:21:57I travel a lot every time I travel I
- 00:21:59stay in a different hotel if I have to
- 00:22:01engage with the hotel to check in they
- 00:22:04asked me to fill out all the information
- 00:22:05so I use Hotel comm I fill out the
- 00:22:07information once every time I travel I
- 00:22:09don't have to do that for each hotel so
- 00:22:11filling out the information it's
- 00:22:13necessary the company the hotel needs it
- 00:22:16but for
- 00:22:16me it doesn't create value filling out
- 00:22:19my information going to the store to buy
- 00:22:21milk unless I like the activity of it or
- 00:22:25driving is a value roading activity it's
- 00:22:28a necessary evil to get the means that I
- 00:22:30want right and so if you can look at
- 00:22:33many industries many business we're all
- 00:22:35doing things that were required to do
- 00:22:37but in and of itself it doesn't create
- 00:22:39value for us so these are the value
- 00:22:41routing activities and there's many many
- 00:22:43many many author out and good disruptors
- 00:22:47they eliminate the need for customers to
- 00:22:49do these value OD activities right
- 00:22:51hotels.com or Netflix don't have to go
- 00:22:55to get the DVD anymore so just to give
- 00:23:00you a few examples now I went back to
- 00:23:02the question how many different types of
- 00:23:03decoupling are there of forms to disrupt
- 00:23:05if there's only three types of
- 00:23:07activities there's only three types of
- 00:23:09decoupling first decoupling value
- 00:23:12creating activities twitch is a great
- 00:23:14example I'm going to give just examples
- 00:23:16in the video game industry twitch allows
- 00:23:18you to go to a website you look at the
- 00:23:22list of games you choose one and you
- 00:23:25essentially go into the chat room you
- 00:23:26can see somebody from around the world
- 00:23:28playing the game they generally have a
- 00:23:30mic just like me and they're talking
- 00:23:31about it and you see the screen of their
- 00:23:34TV and you see their faces from the
- 00:23:36webcam what you can do as a twitch user
- 00:23:39you can maybe ask questions and talk to
- 00:23:41other people as you're seeing somebody
- 00:23:43play the game we all know that playing a
- 00:23:47game is the value creating activity
- 00:23:49these guys these Yale graduates realized
- 00:23:53that seeing the game being played was
- 00:23:57also a value creating activity in that
- 00:24:0060 million people around the world pay
- 00:24:02for the privilege to watch somebody else
- 00:24:04play a game absurd yet this is what we
- 00:24:10learned and they learned it very well in
- 00:24:13three years they built a business and
- 00:24:14they sold it to us on for nine hundred
- 00:24:16and seventy million dollars on that
- 00:24:18premise watching the game being played
- 00:24:20is a value creating activity decoupling
- 00:24:23value Rohde activities as I just said
- 00:24:25the same thing for milk having to go to
- 00:24:27a store to buy a game is a value Rohde
- 00:24:30active
- 00:24:30so steam is essentially the Netflix of
- 00:24:33video game 100 billion users very very
- 00:24:36valuable company as well decoupling is
- 00:24:38due
- 00:24:38and lastly decoupling value charging
- 00:24:40activities not having to buy the game
- 00:24:44and allows businesses like fortnight to
- 00:24:48build a company that you can play the
- 00:24:52game as much as you want for the rest of
- 00:24:55your life indefinitely without ever
- 00:24:58paying anything yet if we all are alike
- 00:25:02in the game we want to differentiate
- 00:25:03ourselves we end up wanting to get you
- 00:25:06know armors and virtual clothing and
- 00:25:10skins and things like that
- 00:25:112.4 billion dollars of revenue of this
- 00:25:14company right so these are the three
- 00:25:16thoughts
- 00:25:17once I started cataloging all of the
- 00:25:21startups in many different industries
- 00:25:22and I did this initially just with 55
- 00:25:26startups that were using one of these
- 00:25:29three types of disruption either valley
- 00:25:31creating disruption value eroding
- 00:25:33disruption or value charging disruption
- 00:25:35I just got the valuations the value of
- 00:25:38these companies and I put it on the
- 00:25:39graph and this is what I found the
- 00:25:41average value of a valley creating
- 00:25:45disrupter no matter what industry they
- 00:25:46are is at the tune of 600 million
- 00:25:49dollars as measured by what investors
- 00:25:52are willing to pay for it right the
- 00:25:54valuation of a company with a lot of
- 00:25:56variation from two to a billion dollars
- 00:25:57right value eroding do couplers yeah
- 00:26:01there are a hundred and fifty million
- 00:26:02dollars worth but not as much as a
- 00:26:04valuation disruption and the valley
- 00:26:07charging ones at around 350 million
- 00:26:09dollars it's some variation right so the
- 00:26:12key point is across industries first
- 00:26:15what explains this so you know I don't
- 00:26:18have time to put all the details but as
- 00:26:20Michael said read the book and I have a
- 00:26:23few hypotheses but it's still
- 00:26:25work-in-progress there's a lot of
- 00:26:27factors might impact this the point is
- 00:26:29regardless of the industry there are
- 00:26:31only three types of decoupling this form
- 00:26:33of disruption in the market the investor
- 00:26:36market seems to value them very very
- 00:26:38differently so to the extent that you
- 00:26:40want to build a start-up this provides
- 00:26:42you some information of what you should
- 00:26:44to focus on so after after learning
- 00:26:49these three different types I said to
- 00:26:51myself okay I can build a startup that
- 00:26:53tries to decouple but that doesn't mean
- 00:26:55I'm going to succeed when will I succeed
- 00:26:58when will I not I want to know this
- 00:26:59before I engage invest my time money and
- 00:27:02effort in all of this right so I went
- 00:27:04back to the beauty industry and I
- 00:27:07thought about it what are the three key
- 00:27:09activities in the customer value chain
- 00:27:11sampling sampling is important there's
- 00:27:14new innovation and products are very
- 00:27:16customized they need to a first purchase
- 00:27:18of a full-size item and if you like it
- 00:27:21you need to replenish that cream that
- 00:27:22you bought so why would a consumer go
- 00:27:26through Sephora to do all these
- 00:27:27activities first if you go to Sephora
- 00:27:30they have these Beauty consultants that
- 00:27:33help you sample the products right so
- 00:27:35they have the expertise and once you
- 00:27:36know what you like it's very convenient
- 00:27:39for you to go to the shelf and grab that
- 00:27:40item and then afterwards you know where
- 00:27:42Sephora is you know where the item is in
- 00:27:44the shelf you can replenish it easily
- 00:27:46right so if you care about the expertise
- 00:27:49and you care about the simplicity as a
- 00:27:51customer chances are you're going to
- 00:27:54integrate these activities that's why I
- 00:27:57call them integration forces you're
- 00:27:59going to do what we would call one-stop
- 00:28:01shop do all these activities with this
- 00:28:03Sephora but what if you as a customer
- 00:28:06you care about convenience I don't want
- 00:28:08to go to the Sephora store to sample
- 00:28:10beauty products chances are you might go
- 00:28:12with epsy which is the Stanford knockoff
- 00:28:15of the Harvard Birchbox not as good not
- 00:28:19as good but similar business model right
- 00:28:22you might want to subscribe to these
- 00:28:24beauty products and have the convenience
- 00:28:26once you know what you like if you
- 00:28:28really care about price price-sensitive
- 00:28:30most likely you're going to go in Amazon
- 00:28:32in speed there's Amazon sell this
- 00:28:33product very cheap and in most cases
- 00:28:36Amazon does not all of them and so you
- 00:28:38might buy make the first purchase with
- 00:28:40Amazon and then but what if you really
- 00:28:42care about the assurance you need that
- 00:28:44beauty product every day in your counter
- 00:28:47to use if you care about assurance keels
- 00:28:50a division of L'Oreal created a new
- 00:28:52service for you you go online and you
- 00:28:55choose the cream that you want
- 00:28:57and you say how often you use it you use
- 00:28:59more in the summer less in the winter
- 00:29:01you put up your frequency there and
- 00:29:03they'll preemptively start shipping the
- 00:29:06beauty product to your house frequently
- 00:29:08you don't need to keep asking for more
- 00:29:10they don't sell the bottle of the beauty
- 00:29:11product they sell the service of
- 00:29:13assuring you that you will always have
- 00:29:15the cream that's why they call it beauty
- 00:29:17as a service you get the service they
- 00:29:19charge it for the service right so if
- 00:29:21you care about those you're more
- 00:29:23specializing with I'm going to work with
- 00:29:26epsy and Amazon and Kiehl's versus
- 00:29:28working with Sephora so consumers are
- 00:29:31torn between these two forces I want to
- 00:29:33do one-stop shopping i integrate all of
- 00:29:36these activities or I am specializing
- 00:29:38these activities because I care about
- 00:29:40different things in each part of the
- 00:29:41process right
- 00:29:43to summarize what I tell my students
- 00:29:46when they're trying to open startups and
- 00:29:49thinking about disruptive ideas focusing
- 00:29:52on customers I said I tell them look
- 00:29:56think of it this way your customer no
- 00:29:59matter who he or she will be and what
- 00:30:02you will buy or what you will sell to
- 00:30:04them imagine your customers as having
- 00:30:07three different currencies in their
- 00:30:09pockets and they're going about their
- 00:30:12day to day trying to get what they want
- 00:30:15trying to get what they need and trying
- 00:30:17to reduce the monetary the time and the
- 00:30:21effort costs associated with acquiring
- 00:30:24those goods and services we as consumers
- 00:30:26have these three fungible currencies
- 00:30:30virtual currencies in our pockets we're
- 00:30:32actually not thinking of them this way
- 00:30:34but over time eventually this is what
- 00:30:36happens the startups that disrupt and
- 00:30:39decouple are the ones that can minimize
- 00:30:41the time the effort and the monetary
- 00:30:45costs at each stage of the process it's
- 00:30:49not all of it at each stage of the
- 00:30:52process if you can reduce monetary time
- 00:30:55and efforts that dictates whether
- 00:30:57customers will choose to decouple or to
- 00:31:00just use one company for all those
- 00:31:03activities so
- 00:31:07by learning all of these things in the
- 00:31:09step I said okay if I put it all
- 00:31:11together I start getting some form of
- 00:31:14format or recipe for disruption right a
- 00:31:18way to think about the process of
- 00:31:21stealing customer activities before I
- 00:31:23tell you this process just wanna make
- 00:31:26sure you understand what a recipe is
- 00:31:27there's a recipe guarantee success that
- 00:31:31gives you if I give you a recipe of cake
- 00:31:33does it guarantee that cake will taste
- 00:31:35well if you use it No
- 00:31:36so recipes don't guarantee success
- 00:31:39recipes are series of logical steps and
- 00:31:42ingredients if you do the steps and
- 00:31:45these ingredients the chances that the
- 00:31:47cake will taste really bad or minimized
- 00:31:49okay just so you notice so what is my
- 00:31:53recipe that I've learned map out the
- 00:31:56customer value chain this is the first
- 00:31:59and most important step you'll ever do
- 00:32:01what are all of the activities that
- 00:32:03customers need to go through in the
- 00:32:05process of acquiring goods and services
- 00:32:08in marketing we used to say this thing
- 00:32:11oh you have to have a tension interest
- 00:32:13desire action that doesn't help anything
- 00:32:14because you use it in all sorts of
- 00:32:16industries no if I have to buy a
- 00:32:18hamburger what do I actually need to do
- 00:32:20you know I need to think about what I
- 00:32:22want I need to go to the store I need to
- 00:32:25order off the menu I need to pay it I
- 00:32:27need to wait for it to receive it right
- 00:32:29I use distance the the packaging these
- 00:32:32are all activities that help me start
- 00:32:34understanding in more detail is there an
- 00:32:36opportunity for me to decouple one of
- 00:32:38these activities right the same thing
- 00:32:40with buying a car or education
- 00:32:43transportation healthcare map out all
- 00:32:46these activities it sounds easy
- 00:32:47as a consultant to big businesses I tell
- 00:32:50you it's the hardest step of all but
- 00:32:52it's necessary then identify the type of
- 00:32:55value in each activity is it evaluating
- 00:32:57activity a valid eroding activity or
- 00:32:59valley capturing why because they'll be
- 00:33:02critical into what type of disruption
- 00:33:04you will actually be trying to do then
- 00:33:06you find the weak link in this process
- 00:33:10somewhere those customers are not fully
- 00:33:14satisfied or happy with that activity
- 00:33:16they can be happy with everything
- 00:33:18because companies have to do lots of
- 00:33:19things
- 00:33:20and so I'm unhappy with something
- 00:33:22customers are happy find the weak link
- 00:33:25because that is your beachhead that's
- 00:33:26where you're going to try to steal a
- 00:33:27customer activity and how do you do that
- 00:33:30by increasing the specialization forces
- 00:33:32reducing the monetary the time and the
- 00:33:35effort cost if you reduce these costs
- 00:33:37for the customers by the powers that be
- 00:33:39you are going to eventually start to
- 00:33:41bring customers in they would eventually
- 00:33:45start noticing that it's cheaper faster
- 00:33:47easier to get the goods and services
- 00:33:49that they need right and then you
- 00:33:52anticipate the competitive response let
- 00:33:58me show you a few examples of my
- 00:33:59students actually using the formula in
- 00:34:01the real estate industry Pro logis is
- 00:34:03the biggest owner of commercial real
- 00:34:05estate space one of my students said we
- 00:34:07know stores mom-and-pop shops small
- 00:34:10boutique stores any retailer needs to
- 00:34:12showcase the product that's the valley
- 00:34:14creating activity but unfortunately they
- 00:34:16have to own the space that the valley
- 00:34:17capture activity so how can I my student
- 00:34:21lower the cost to display products or
- 00:34:23services
- 00:34:23he created storefront with storefront if
- 00:34:26you own a store imagine you own that
- 00:34:28little boutique shop you can actually
- 00:34:31look at parts of your store that are not
- 00:34:33being utilized like way back in there in
- 00:34:36the corner and you could go to the
- 00:34:37website and you can virtually sell or
- 00:34:41rent that piece of your store to another
- 00:34:43manufacturer retailer not a competitor
- 00:34:45obviously so if I sell watches I could
- 00:34:47ship watches to that store and either I
- 00:34:50pay a flat fee or a commission and this
- 00:34:52person that owns the store is now being
- 00:34:54able to sell watches in that part and
- 00:34:57make it money as well right decoupling
- 00:34:59these activities now I don't need to own
- 00:35:01the space now if I'm a manufacturer
- 00:35:03retailer I can flood the US market with
- 00:35:05my products in a matter of a few weeks
- 00:35:07or months very very quickly and startups
- 00:35:10are starting to do that in the
- 00:35:13healthcare and in the lab testing
- 00:35:16industry so uh Julia cheek from Everly
- 00:35:19well she that's her
- 00:35:22she created a startup that if you have
- 00:35:25to to do one of many tests lab tests
- 00:35:29that involve either a drop of blood not
- 00:35:32the full size violin a drop of blood
- 00:35:35your inner saliva you can request the
- 00:35:37test so a woman's fertility food
- 00:35:40sensitivity to start their own and
- 00:35:42thirty other types you can go online
- 00:35:44request for the kit it goes to your
- 00:35:47house you can put the blood urine or
- 00:35:49saliva there send it back to her what do
- 00:35:52you think she does she creates invest
- 00:35:54billions of dollars in doing labs to to
- 00:35:57test these no she sends it to a
- 00:35:58traditional lab gets the result back and
- 00:36:01uploads the result to for the consumer
- 00:36:04and for the physician of the consumer
- 00:36:06avoiding you having to take a trip to
- 00:36:09physically get things that you can do at
- 00:36:13home so attempting to disrupt this the
- 00:36:15company requires this five-step process
- 00:36:17that can be used in virtually any
- 00:36:19industry right it's a very generic
- 00:36:21approach to thinking about how to
- 00:36:23disrupt an industry by really focusing
- 00:36:25on the customer value chain now how do
- 00:36:29you respond what if you're a big
- 00:36:31business and you're looking at this your
- 00:36:33GM you're a big pharmaceutical company
- 00:36:37you're a big real estate developer what
- 00:36:41do you do well imagine that disruption
- 00:36:47means something is breaking in this case
- 00:36:49decoupling means the value chain is
- 00:36:51being broken of the customer if somebody
- 00:36:54breaks something of you what how can you
- 00:36:56respond what can you do you can either
- 00:37:01glue it back or you can learn to live
- 00:37:05with the fact that it's broken so the
- 00:37:07gluing it back is called I call it
- 00:37:09really naturally and let me give you an
- 00:37:13example of a company to try to recover
- 00:37:15so silic supplies sells gluten-free
- 00:37:18products a retailer has three stores in
- 00:37:21Australia gluten-free products in glue
- 00:37:24Tina was one of them and glooty know as
- 00:37:26a manufacturer obviously wanted to do
- 00:37:28like Amazon it wanted to get people to
- 00:37:30buy the products online but how do you
- 00:37:32get a people's attention well put the
- 00:37:33product in the shelf space assilex
- 00:37:36applies and other retailers and then put
- 00:37:38the you know the website come by you
- 00:37:40know and say buy online and people can
- 00:37:42see you oh it's cheaper to buy online so
- 00:37:44what people were doing is just going to
- 00:37:46the store browsing
- 00:37:48at Sulak supplies but then buying
- 00:37:50decoupling buying with the manufacturer
- 00:37:53of the goods which is butene oh right
- 00:37:55and so Sulak supplies said enough with
- 00:37:57this people are coming into our stores
- 00:38:00they're looking they're tasting
- 00:38:01everything and then they buy online and
- 00:38:03we don't make any money that's not fair
- 00:38:04so we're going to reek up all these
- 00:38:06activities browsing and buying is going
- 00:38:10to be reek up 'old so the owner of the
- 00:38:11store put this pamphlet in the front of
- 00:38:14her her door dear customer as over the
- 00:38:16first of February the store will be
- 00:38:18charging people a five-dollar fee just
- 00:38:21for looking the five-dollar fee will be
- 00:38:22deducted when goods are purchased so
- 00:38:25basically if you buy anything you don't
- 00:38:26need to pay for it and then afterwards
- 00:38:28she just claims how it's unfair but
- 00:38:30she's not making money all the cost this
- 00:38:32and that right what do you think five
- 00:38:34dollars to the store if you don't pay
- 00:38:36anything that sounds fair right you're
- 00:38:39investing in inventory you're giving
- 00:38:41people all these options to taste-test
- 00:38:43you have sales people people need to pay
- 00:38:45if they don't buy it what do you think
- 00:38:47no not good
- 00:38:50you wouldn't enter you wouldn't enter in
- 00:38:53so many people one answer that the
- 00:38:55company went out of business so that's
- 00:38:58what happened but the point is the point
- 00:39:02is that maybe she was thinking or I
- 00:39:06should just executed it wrong right
- 00:39:09now the fact is that when I looked at
- 00:39:13most of the big companies that were
- 00:39:16being disrupted by decoupling like
- 00:39:21telefónica Lexmark printers NBC Gillette
- 00:39:25JPMorgan Chase and Best Buy their
- 00:39:28instinctive in first reaction to all
- 00:39:30decoupling by startups was doing exactly
- 00:39:32what
- 00:39:33seelix supplies did trying to force the
- 00:39:36customer oh no you can't you can't
- 00:39:38decouple the customer value chain in so
- 00:39:42many words that's what they end up doing
- 00:39:44which is this natural response somebody
- 00:39:46breaks something of yours it's very
- 00:39:48valuable you try to glue it back and not
- 00:39:50let them do it anymore
- 00:39:51Best Buy same thing Best Buy people were
- 00:39:55going to the stores and looking and
- 00:39:57asking for sales people's advice and
- 00:39:58then they're going to pull out the
- 00:40:00Amazon phone and say
- 00:40:01I'm gonna buy this right here now right
- 00:40:03so Best Buy executives
- 00:40:05even thought of the option well what if
- 00:40:08we put signal jamming devices in our
- 00:40:10stores just like in the prisons and then
- 00:40:12once you go in the story you can't use
- 00:40:14your cell phone so you can't practice
- 00:40:16showrooming right trying to force again
- 00:40:19fortunately they were smart enough to
- 00:40:21realize that was going against the
- 00:40:24customer's natural desires and there is
- 00:40:26a better approach which is preemptively
- 00:40:29brake yourself instead of waiting for a
- 00:40:31disrupter to break you you preemptively
- 00:40:33break yourself you learn to live with
- 00:40:35this and let me show you what Best Buy
- 00:40:38ended up doing seeing that people were
- 00:40:41going to the store and practicing
- 00:40:43showrooming browsing on Best Buy and
- 00:40:46then buying online
- 00:40:48what Best Buy decided to do is they said
- 00:40:52okay if customers want to showroom let
- 00:40:55them let them do it
- 00:40:57let them they started encouraging people
- 00:41:01to come to our stores and browse
- 00:41:02products no need to buy browse product
- 00:41:05they even created TV ads your ultimate
- 00:41:07holiday showroom unfortunately there's a
- 00:41:11puzzle there which is okay if people
- 00:41:13keep doing this our store has huge costs
- 00:41:16and we're not going to make any money so
- 00:41:18first they said we needed to price match
- 00:41:20with Amazon we need to have the same
- 00:41:22price if you see a cheaper price we will
- 00:41:25offer you at the same price but we still
- 00:41:27have a problem because Amazon doesn't
- 00:41:29make money
- 00:41:29yeah and Amazon doesn't have all these
- 00:41:31costs of stores and inventory and sales
- 00:41:33people so they needed to figure out a
- 00:41:36change in their business model and what
- 00:41:37they realized is that when people are
- 00:41:41just browsing whether they it on Amazon
- 00:41:45or they buy it on Best Buy somebody is
- 00:41:48always benefiting it's a value creating
- 00:41:51activity for somebody that is not the
- 00:41:53shopper which is the supplier Samsung if
- 00:41:56it sells on Amazon are Best Buy
- 00:41:58it always makes money and so Samsung was
- 00:42:03getting something for free when people
- 00:42:05were browsing so it decided to say from
- 00:42:07now on the manufacturers will have to
- 00:42:09pay for the space that they put their
- 00:42:13products that we showcase in the store
- 00:42:15this was the first time that an
- 00:42:18electronic retailer started practicing
- 00:42:20something that is called slotting fees
- 00:42:22common in supermarkets supermarkets have
- 00:42:24to pay to put products on the shelf and
- 00:42:28so right now what you see today if you
- 00:42:32go into a Best Buy store what you see is
- 00:42:36a parking lot for brands and products in
- 00:42:38this parking lot all the spaces are
- 00:42:40reserved and are paid for by the
- 00:42:43manufacturers and with that Best Buy
- 00:42:47changed its business model to one of
- 00:42:49bringing people into the stores and
- 00:42:51selling their attention to manufacturers
- 00:42:54yeah they make money on selling goods
- 00:42:57and services but the margins are slim
- 00:42:58but they really are making money on is
- 00:43:01getting the attention and selling it
- 00:43:03right preemptively and here you will see
- 00:43:06the CEO the former CEO he stepped down
- 00:43:08last year CEO of Best Buy to your left
- 00:43:11uber jolie and the CEO of samson north
- 00:43:15america aj kim in the first handshaking
- 00:43:18of the first ever manufacturer of
- 00:43:20electronics to pay for slotting fees to
- 00:43:22a retailer and if you look closely
- 00:43:25ladies and gentlemen one of these
- 00:43:26gentlemen are smiling much more than the
- 00:43:29other one right so incumbents can
- 00:43:35respond to the threat of being decouple
- 00:43:37in two ways they can wreak Uppal or they
- 00:43:40can decouple themselves those are the
- 00:43:42broad avenues of responding again
- 00:43:45there's many ways to execute and it's
- 00:43:48not easy to just execute on it but these
- 00:43:50are the broad responses that are
- 00:43:52happening one of the key elements behind
- 00:43:56the Best Buy story is Best Buy was
- 00:43:58creating value for manufacturers but it
- 00:44:01wasn't capturing any of this value
- 00:44:03before it started charging slotting fees
- 00:44:05it would only capture from the shopper
- 00:44:07if you bought the product and the
- 00:44:09difference between value creation of
- 00:44:10value captures what I call leakage and
- 00:44:12many companies have leakage of value
- 00:44:15they are creating value but they can't
- 00:44:18get paid enough for this value and value
- 00:44:21is being leaked
- 00:44:21sometimes being leaked to the customer
- 00:44:23sometimes is being leaked towards
- 00:44:26competitors such that design can benefit
- 00:44:28from that
- 00:44:29this particular case and the way to
- 00:44:31address leakage of value is to practice
- 00:44:34what I call rebalance rebalancing means
- 00:44:36that you capture value at every stage of
- 00:44:39the customer value chain in which you're
- 00:44:41creating value if you create value in
- 00:44:44capture at every stage then you minimize
- 00:44:46the chances that a disrupter sees an
- 00:44:49opportunity to come in and steal that
- 00:44:52activity right so where do you grow next
- 00:44:58I'm running out of time so I'm just
- 00:45:00gonna go very quickly with your so after
- 00:45:02you disrupt how do you grow how do
- 00:45:04startups grow well we can look at the at
- 00:45:07the past of what others told us in the
- 00:45:091980s this guy called mark Mogu said go
- 00:45:12to growth markets how do you grow
- 00:45:13business you go where the market is
- 00:45:15growing so he said let's go to two to
- 00:45:18Southeast Asia and then he saw I
- 00:45:20everybody went to Southeast Asia and so
- 00:45:22when it was growing rally he made money
- 00:45:25in the beginning of here the first but
- 00:45:26it gets a lot of ones you don't really
- 00:45:27make money right but then Michael Porter
- 00:45:30on my former colleague in 1985 said it's
- 00:45:32not about the biggest markets it's about
- 00:45:34where you have competitive advantage you
- 00:45:35have to work where you are good at
- 00:45:37relative to all of the other forces in
- 00:45:40the market so talked about the Five
- 00:45:42Forces and so you go you go into markets
- 00:45:45and what you have this competitive
- 00:45:46advantage in terms of these forces and
- 00:45:48then my CKD Prahlada if the 90 said no
- 00:45:53no it's not about this only it's not
- 00:45:57about having an advantage it's about
- 00:45:59having advantage is something that it's
- 00:46:01core to you and what you do it's not
- 00:46:04just an advantage generally and he
- 00:46:05create the idea of core competencies and
- 00:46:07then lastly in 2000s early 2000s Chris
- 00:46:11Zook who's a consultant of Bain said now
- 00:46:13wait a minute that's too broad stifle
- 00:46:15you could pull in adjacent markets
- 00:46:17because if you have a core competency
- 00:46:19and you go to another country to
- 00:46:21manufacture something completely
- 00:46:22different from what is is is core to you
- 00:46:26then you're gonna run into trouble so
- 00:46:28you need to as you grow you need to go
- 00:46:31to adjacent markets because then you
- 00:46:33minimize the risk that you have to do
- 00:46:34something completely new that you're not
- 00:46:36used to it
- 00:46:37yet when we look at startups follow none
- 00:46:40of these advices right if you look
- 00:46:43a fast-growing startup like Adi is for
- 00:46:50example Alibaba business-to-business
- 00:46:51shopping then business-to-consumer then
- 00:46:53shop consumer they created a company
- 00:46:57called Ali Wong Wong which is a
- 00:46:58text-based messaging device and it
- 00:47:01created a pay but you can pay for the
- 00:47:03items that you buy online and then it
- 00:47:07for arrival you know the Google
- 00:47:11equivalent Baidu and then they create an
- 00:47:13Ali you which is a browser operating
- 00:47:15system and then they purchased and build
- 00:47:19a a delivery network called con yell and
- 00:47:23then lastly 2015 purchased a device a
- 00:47:27mobile device manufactured called major
- 00:47:30if you look at this there's no visible
- 00:47:33synergy which is the basis of all of the
- 00:47:36other academics and consultants that
- 00:47:37talked about the port there's no
- 00:47:39synergies no strong synergies in my mind
- 00:47:41between doing retailing and doing
- 00:47:44software and hardware and doing
- 00:47:46financial payment services doing
- 00:47:48logistics these are very very different
- 00:47:50businesses what they do potentially
- 00:48:03potentially you know but even
- 00:48:06conglomerates there's some conglomerates
- 00:48:08obviously have gone in very different
- 00:48:09markets and they stay within the country
- 00:48:11because of regulatory issues they have a
- 00:48:13benefit but most kendama conglomerates
- 00:48:15are still selling products that are
- 00:48:17adjacent to their industries they don't
- 00:48:19start doing payments and logistics in
- 00:48:21this and this is that very very far away
- 00:48:22my interpretation of this is the reason
- 00:48:27the benefit of all doing all this is
- 00:48:30that they're really looking at synergies
- 00:48:33of what they can do but they're looking
- 00:48:35at synergies from the point of view of
- 00:48:37the customer
- 00:48:39they've started mapping out the customer
- 00:48:41value chain what do you as a customer
- 00:48:43need to do in order to buy product
- 00:48:46online and receive it you need to pull
- 00:48:48out your cell phone you choose your
- 00:48:49operating system you search you you buy
- 00:48:52from someplace you talk to negotiate
- 00:48:54terms and you pay for and you receive
- 00:48:57it they started capturing all of the
- 00:48:59activities in the customer ecology so
- 00:49:01this process after you decouple these
- 00:49:03big tech giants are coupling activities
- 00:49:06in growing around the customer value
- 00:49:08chain instead of let's go to all these
- 00:49:10different industries and try to to
- 00:49:12benefit by going independently right so
- 00:49:16what I just summarized what I told you
- 00:49:18decoupling how do you enter how do you
- 00:49:20disrupt markets coupling how do you grow
- 00:49:22after you enter and you capture one
- 00:49:24activity and then how do you respond by
- 00:49:26rebalancing and recovery right to end
- 00:49:28just a few myths things that I've heard
- 00:49:30again and again again that I just based
- 00:49:32on my research based on my experience
- 00:49:34they are just not true
- 00:49:35when we look at the couplers and we look
- 00:49:37at the industries
- 00:49:39first we start seeing the real force
- 00:49:42behind digital disruption we're starting
- 00:49:45to see this image to me customers
- 00:49:47disrupt markets not startups it's not
- 00:49:50the technology it's not that startups
- 00:49:52per se startups are just in many cases
- 00:49:54faster than big companies at addressing
- 00:49:56the evolving changes in the needs of
- 00:49:59customers
- 00:50:00point number two there's so many new
- 00:50:03technologies 3d printing wearables
- 00:50:04blockchain VR AR Bitcoin the executives
- 00:50:10today are just shocked there's just too
- 00:50:12much too much new things it's just you
- 00:50:15know to be able to absorb and understand
- 00:50:18all these technologies luckily in my
- 00:50:21view the disruptive ingredient is
- 00:50:23business model innovation not technology
- 00:50:26alone not primarily technology in many
- 00:50:29cases if you are a seller of technology
- 00:50:31obviously you need to build new
- 00:50:33technologies but in most cases if you're
- 00:50:35not a seller you're a user
- 00:50:36technology is not the disrupter it's a
- 00:50:38business model innovation in the company
- 00:50:41so also consultants like me and
- 00:50:44professors like I used to be in girls we
- 00:50:47all have the answers about digital
- 00:50:48disruption transformation these are
- 00:50:50actually frameworks that are proposed by
- 00:50:52many of these people they tend to be
- 00:50:54round for some reason and they tend to
- 00:50:56be colorful to explain about digital
- 00:50:58disruption works if you don't like round
- 00:51:01symbols if you like a triangle they have
- 00:51:04a triangle they have a diamond shape
- 00:51:06they have eggs egg on and my favorite
- 00:51:08the honeycomb model of digital
- 00:51:10transformation
- 00:51:11forget about all this there's a common
- 00:51:14approach to disruption I'm an approach
- 00:51:17requires understanding the value chain
- 00:51:19what customers are actually trying to do
- 00:51:22trying to accomplish and looking at how
- 00:51:24you can break apart these so reviews
- 00:51:26sites are breaking apart decoupling
- 00:51:28considering from choosing pop-up stores
- 00:51:30or decoupling purchasing from receiving
- 00:51:31products you go to the store you buy but
- 00:51:33you don't get it it's delivered to your
- 00:51:35house showroom the driver with me or
- 00:51:37other decoupling consume me in disposing
- 00:51:39your products and services we don't even
- 00:51:41have this word and even the sharing
- 00:51:42economy in which you purchased purchased
- 00:51:45things to consume it are are an example
- 00:51:48if you think about it of the company in
- 00:51:49general right and my favorite example is
- 00:51:51my daughter wants a puppy now she's
- 00:51:55seven years old the acquisition cost of
- 00:51:57the puppy is going to bear on me and the
- 00:51:59maintenance cost is going to be borne on
- 00:52:02me as well and so I'm figuring out how
- 00:52:04can i address her need to actually pay
- 00:52:06with the puppy luckily there's borrow my
- 00:52:08doggy if you have a dog in your
- 00:52:09traveling you can loan the dog to
- 00:52:11somebody for the weekend and this person
- 00:52:13like me could spend the dog give the dog
- 00:52:15my kids and then when they return home
- 00:52:18from the trip you can return the dogs so
- 00:52:20sharing economy is that this best ladies
- 00:52:24and gentlemen thank you so much for your
- 00:52:25time really appreciate
- disruption
- technology
- startups
- business model
- decoupling
- customer value chain
- digital disruption
- innovation
- corporate strategy
- market adaptation