digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: Simon Sinek argues professionals should be willing to abandon their existing business model and reimagine how they would deliver value if they were building their industry from scratch, because protecting the old model invites disruption from outsiders. Sinek's examples show that incumbents who clung to legacy revenue streams were overtaken by newcomers, including companies from outside their own industries.
Key Points
- Blockbuster's board rejected a subscription model because about 12 percent of its revenue came from late fees, and Netflix went on to dominate the market while Blockbuster nearly disappeared.
- The music industry focused on selling albums in stores such as Tower Records and HMV, while Apple saw the real customer as the person who buys and listens to music, which led to iTunes.
- Publishing, the leader in its field, did not invent the Kindle; Amazon did, because the publishing industry was too busy protecting its existing model.
- Disruption often comes from companies outside the industry, so the threat may not be a direct competitor but a software company that "eviscerates" the profession.
- Professionals should ask why they entered the field: for income, for math, or to help people and organizations grow, since the last motivation is most likely to drive innovation.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions:
- Ask: "What value do we offer the people who buy our product, and how would we deliver it in this changing day and age?"
- Imagine what you would build if you were inventing your industry today, knowing nothing about how it currently works.
- Be willing to ignore what existed before, because it may be irrelevant, and treat your current business model as something you can afford to blow up.
- Balance the numbers (the language of the balance sheet) with an understanding of cultural and emotional change, since numbers only show half the picture of a business's health.
- Sinek frames the choice starkly: if you protect the business, it will be blown up for you; if you are willing to blow it up yourself, the profession will do fine.
- Blockbuster's CEO reportedly pushed the board to explore subscriptions early, while streaming technology was still immature, and was overruled. Blockbuster now survives as a single store in northern Canada.
Bottom Line
The real risk to any profession is not new technology itself but refusing to rethink the business model that currently earns money, so reinvention has to begin before outsiders force it.
