What we should learn from Disney’s “Innovate or Die”

As a business owner, you expect change to happen.  As a matter of fact, the only thing in business that stays the same is the need to change—especially in the face of a global pandemic. As product availability, buyer habits, staffing, and distribution changes rapidly in response to or in anticipation of the external environment, business owners need to be agile.

In the period of economic and environmental uncertainty, business agility is not just a strategic advantage. It is a requirement for survival.

In Jeff Beckham’s “Innovate or Die:” Lessons from Disney on challenging the status quo in your product strategy,” he describes Disney’s approach to launching Disney+.

It is important to point out that Disney’s CEO Bob Iger went through a very specific innovation process wherein he assessed his current product offerings, evaluated them against demands of his markets, identified new data-driven market opportunities, and essentially pushed it out to market. It wasn’t a “gut feel” decision or a bunch of people sitting around the table. It was a strategic approach, which is a data-driven approach to strategy with the goal of creating marketplace advantage (or avoid disadvantage to the less ambitious).

Please take a look at the article and let us know what you think.  We would love to hear what lessons you’ve taken from this and how you might implement in your own business. His approach really stands out to us as a great model. One of the tools that was mentioned – the flow / path analysis – is a tool that we are familiar with but one for which we have found different application. We look forward to hearing from you.

Business Catalyst Masterclass

To give back to the small business community, we have developed the Business Catalyst Program to help you retrench, move your company forward, and bridge the gap from where you are today to where you want to go.

We still have a few spots left for the catalyst program. Register through this link, then once we review your application, we’ll let you know if your business qualifies for it.