Embracing Disruption

Disruption. A word that often comes with a negative or scary connotation, but instead should be viewed as an opportunity.

Recently, at RVX, we had the pleasure of welcoming a unique panel of talented and experienced businessmen and women, including Emmy Award-winning TV personality and technology expert Katie Linendoll, Co-Founder of Waze Uri Levine, and former Beats by Dre CMO and VP of Marketing at Apple Omar Johnson, as they participated in a lively discussion on disruption, referencing their own personal journeys.

You’re probably wondering, how does this apply to me?

Well, for starters, disruption in all industries will happen at some point. What’s worth noting, our experts agree that it will always be good for the industry at large.

Take the iPod for example. Just think about what it did to the music industry. What about the kindle and what it did to grow more readers leading to a growth in publishing? Beyond these two examples, you’ll find countless others where “disruption” meets “opportunity.”

Uri’s own story of disruption falls right in line. He shared, “A group of friends and I used to take drives up the country. This was in the early 2000’s during the times of Mapquest and GPS. Invariably, someone in the group would leave earlier and we’d call each other to find out about the time it took to arrive, traffic, etc. Reflecting back on those conversations lead to a light-bulb moment – who doesn’t want someone else 30 seconds ahead in life to tell them what’s coming?”

Uri’s craving to know the future is a universal want. So, he went to work on creating a solution to a simple problem that not only he faced, but many others, as well. Uri connected drivers who wanted to share information and turned it into a billion-dollar company called Waze.

Most true disruptors don’t set out with the goal in mind of creating disruption. Like any other business owner, they’re trying to solve a problem, and in doing so, they can change an entire industry.

What we don’t want to happen, is for the moment to pass us by, and Omar invited the audience to think about our own industry and how to recognize opportunity. “Existing markets struggle to see disruption in the market. Change often comes from new-comers who don’t have anything to lose. I look at all these RVs around me and ask myself not what the threat in the market is, but the opportunity I can pursue. So many companies sell the joy of driving, but that’s something I don’t necessarily care about each day. It’s everything else you do aside from driving. That’s what I see when I look at these products. These are amazing, entertainment venues on wheels.”

The panelists concluded by re-iterating the enormous opportunity disruption has in any industry. If you’re able to listen outside your category, embrace the prospects, and quantify the ideas, the outcomes will be explosive.

“Don’t just sell a product, find that deep emotional need and connect your product to that. That is what will take you far,” said Omar.

Watch the complete discussion on industry disruption at RVX here: