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Learning from Past Disruptions to Predict the Future

Knownwell

What do Nokia, Blackberry, Blockbuster, and Kodak have in common? How did these high-flying companies that were once household names become cautionary tales for a new generation of companies as we enter the AI age? Each company that formerly held a dominant position in its space was eventually undone by their inability to adapt, innovate, and evolve alongside competitors who proved themselves more adept at harnessing disruptive technology.

David DeWolf, Courtney Baker, and Mohan Rao unpack some of the forces that led to these companies’ collective falls from grace on the latest episode of AI Knowhow. They also dive into what lessons we can learn from past technology disruptions that are more applicable than ever as AI begins to ripple through the business landscape.

One of the most salient points is to avoid falling prey to the “Innovator’s Dilemma.” Leaders can become so wedded to the products and services that have led to their company’s past successes that they ignore potential disruption and fail to continue evolving their offerings in a way that customers demand until it’s too late.

Pete Buer also talks with Michael Hyatt about lessons business leaders can learn about guiding organizations through periods of significant technology disruption. One of Michael’s keys for any leaders to absorb and understand? The disruption that feels so prevalent today isn’t showing any signs of slowing down or going away. Those who look at it as an opportunity to continue solving problems for customers in innovative new ways rather than something to temporarily withstand are those who will succeed in the age of AI.

Michael is the Founder and Chairman of Full Focus and was the CEO of Thomas Nelson, a major book publisher that was acquired by HarperCollins, from 2005-2011. This period saw a number of transformational elements impacting the publishing business, including the advent of social media, Amazon’s continued infringement on the traditional publishing model, and the continued growth of different mediums for consumption, including ebooks and audio.

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In the News Highlights

  • Courtney and Pete cover some of the latest AI news, including a recent story that The Atlantic featured in their Atlantic Intelligence newsletter, How First Contact With Whale Civilization Could Unfold
  • Pete’s takeaways? While there may be little direct tie to the business world, this is just another example of the kind of blue sky (blue ocean?) thinking that executives should be engaging in as they ponder how to use AI in their businesses
  • They also dig into a recent article from Bloomberg about Cognition AI’s new product Devin, Sports-Coders Get Serious With Advanced AI Software Assistant
  • Devin can complete entire software development programs, e.g. “create a website featuring all the Italian restaurants in Sydney.” Pete cites the rapid evolution of AI as a coder—first it could help finish code started by developers, then it could write some code independently given appropriate commands, and now it can tackle entire software projects—to encourage leaders to begin experimenting with the technology now if they haven’t already.

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