Disruption Everywhere

Two articles demonstrate that no field is free from disruption. The first is about the Big Consulting business practice that is changing fast. The legal professional is also being disrupted and used as an example of why the consulting world will soon fall fate as well.

“Management consulting’s fundamental business model has not changed in more than 100 years. At traditional strategy-consulting firms, the share of work that is classic strategy is now about 20%–down from 60% to 70% some 30 years ago.”

Former Big Three employees now work for companies like general counsel. They reduce professional services costs. They reduce scope of work and thus the price tag. Just another example of a high-profit business being annihilated, only Amazon didn’t do it this time.

“Clients rely on brand, reputation, and “social proof”–that is, the professionals’ educational pedigrees, eloquence, and demeanor–as substitutes for measurable results.” That is a problem in consulting. The measurable part. I think that some companies hire ideas/strategy but forget that it is all about execution. I don’t know if you can disrupt execution yet. Knowledge certainly. And I think we have spent a good amount of time just copying strategy from competitors. That isn’t working out well either. Like in law and medicine, the general practice firm is giving way to specialists.

The second article is about voice first technology disrupting the search ad revenue model.

“”…one thing that we are all clear about is the days of three top text ads followed by ten organic results is a thing of the past in the voice first world”– Sridhar Ramaswamy, Senior VP of advertising and commerce @ Google, November 29, 2016.”

“Just like this generation now no longer has CDs, DVDs, tapes or records, the next generation will expect voice interaction, not with pages of search results but AI assisted, ontology, and taxonomy perfect answers, most particularly one answer.”

“The writing is on the wall.”

Medium.com just laid off one-third their staff as the traditional ad based business model was NOT working for them.

Retail isn’t working for Sears/KMart, Kohls, Macys, Sports Authority and so much more. Have you been to a mall lately? Anyone holding a shopping bag from a store in that mall?

New drug will regenerate teeth, so where does that leave dentists?

A large hedge fund will replace managers with artificial intelligence!

What does this have to do with YOU? Well, anyone can be displaced or replaced. The number of displaced workers is growing. Either you are growing or you are dying. Either you are learning new skills or someone/something will leapfrog you.

Hugh MacLeod writes, “To innovate, you don’t have to reinvent the whole thing. Innovation is taking what exists and making it better. It’s grown-up copying.”

Tags: analytics, artificial intelligence, big data, disrupt, innovation
Related tags: business model, consulting, business, strategy, either, voice