This is not the traditional career path that people often say, but it may be a new normal. Maybe we can refer to clayton christensen's theory.
Many readers of Harvard Business Review must be familiar with Christensen, who is the father of disruptive innovation. According to the viewpoint of subversive innovation, the most successful innovations are those that can open up new markets and rebuild value networks, which are subversive. A large number of research data show that subversive thinking can improve the success rate of products, companies and even countries. Our investment fund focuses on the stocks of companies with subversive business. In the past 10 years, our profits have been considerable, exceeding many related indexes.
I believe that this subversive effect is equally effective at the individual level, not only those entrepreneurs who are subversive and innovative, but also those who change within the company or between organizations. The tortuous career path may become more common now, but it's best not to change it too casually.
Why subversion?
Of course, not everyone should give up the traditional road, especially when you are committed to an ambitious and predictable goal, such as managing a department of a company or being in a senior position in your industry. In this case, subversion is unnecessary. What you are pursuing is what Christensen calls continuous innovation: the company can develop better on the original basis and provide more value to existing customers. For an individual, if you have reached a certain peak and you doubt that you will be happy to climb it, it is time for you to subvert yourself, just like a company is running subversive innovation.
Four rules
As a person who is familiar with the theory of disruptive innovation, I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to apply it to career transformation and discussed it with many people. These people have undergone many changes, but their successful career path is very similar to mine. We all seem to be following the four principles, which are more or less based on the four rules formulated by Christensen for enterprises.
1. Lock requirements that can be met more effectively. A core principle of disruptive innovation is that customers control the allocation of resources. Instead of buying products, they "rent" products to meet their needs. Subversives look for needs that are not well met. They are committed to markets that no one else has entered or that no one wants to enter.
The real estate portal founded by Martin crampton is also a subversive adventure. But before the website was established, he had already begun to subvert himself. Only then did he realize that it was marketing strategy rather than development and sales that promoted the use of software products. He seized the opportunity. So before entering the next subversion, he positioned himself as engaged in a series of important marketing work. Alex McClane analyzed the demand of his industry (medical care) for people who can easily cross disciplines, such as science, finance, logistics and supervision. Then, he will find his position in various medical institutions, including newly established biological companies to fortune 500 pharmaceutical companies, which will help him develop those needed skills.
2. Know your subversive advantages. When disruptive companies have insight into unmet needs, they will first ensure that these needs match their strengths. They realize that market risk (trying new things and possibly failing) is better than competitive risk (facing competitors in a mature and stable market). A typical example is América Móvil, a wireless telephone provider in Mexico. Instead of competing directly with some cable telephone companies, this company concentrates its business on the other 80% people who want to use the telephone but can't afford the fixed telephone fee.
When you think about subverting yourself, don't just think about what you can do well, but also think about what you can do well and others can't. That's your subversive advantage. For example, I used to be an excellent financial analyst. In fact, many people know about financial modeling, but what people evaluate me most is my ability to see cross-disciplinary opportunities. This is a bit like what psychologist howard gardner called "searchlight intelligence": the ability to easily identify the links between different fields and find opportunities for intersection. Crampton is an excellent developer, but what is more striking is that he is an outstanding marketing talent. He is familiar with a field that requires strong interdisciplinary ability.
3. detour, everything is for growth. Just as the survival of a company depends on the growth of income, the growth of a person depends on learning and promotion. When the organization becomes too big, it will stop exploring smaller, riskier and more profitable markets, because the income generated will not have a big impact on the total profit. Because Borders is very successful in the book sales industry, it is slow to accept e-commerce. They succeeded in that industry. When a person rises to a certain height in his career, he may be allowed to be in a stable state, and his personal growth often stops at the top of a typical S-shaped curve. Subversives can avoid this problem by jumping to a new post, a new industry or a new organization, and put themselves on a completely different growth track.
Adam Richardson did just that. He gave up his job at Sun Microsystems and chose an unknown postgraduate course. Of course, don't forget Christensen, who left the materials science company at the age of 40 and went to Harvard Business School to study for a doctorate. "Resignation" allowed him to develop a set of theories that changed the business world and made his career as a teacher, consultant and investor a great success.
4. Let your strategy appear naturally. Subversive innovation is also defined as contingency strategy. Unlike running a detailed market analysis and making a plan to achieve the goal step by step, disruptive innovators are flexible. They take a step forward, collect feedback and make corresponding adjustments. As Amar Bhide, a professor at Columbia University, revealed, 70% of all successful startups will eventually adopt strategies different from their original ideas. A well-known example is Netflix, which initially only provided DVD mail rental service, and now focuses on online movie playback.
Subversive occupations have parallel lines. Because I don't take the traditional career path, I can't see the end from the beginning. As john D john rockefeller wrote, "If you want to succeed, you should move forward on a new road, not along the trampled road of success."
A good example is Sabina Nawaz, a young computer engineer from Microsoft. She climbed very skillfully in the company and gradually assumed more responsibilities. It seems just around the corner to be promoted to the position of vice president that many people dream of. But after learning some positive feedback about management skills and emotional intelligence (perhaps this is the subversive advantage of the software industry), Nawaz decided to subvert himself.
"I have always followed the traditional promotion model. I know the successful model, but I don't want the next position or promotion," she recalled. "I want to make a breakthrough." She asked to work in the human resources department and has worked in this position for six years. Then, instead of continuing to climb at Microsoft, she resigned and started a leadership development consulting company. Although this may never have been her career goal, Nawaz let her strategy emerge naturally.
You are the engine.
According to Christensen's research on disruptive innovation, a company seeking to develop in a new market rather than an existing market will have a six-fold higher chance of success; At the same time, the potential income will increase by 20 times. It is impossible to measure the impact of personal disruptive innovation in the same way, but experience shows that it can actually have a similar effect: it will significantly improve your chances of economic, social and emotional success.
There is no doubt that the attraction of maintaining the status quo is strong. In your life and career, people around you may advise you to avoid subversion. For many of us, stagnation actually means retrogression, because we turn a blind eye to the competitive threat from younger and more agile innovators, miss opportunities for greater success and sacrifice opportunities for personal growth.
We have paid a lot of attention to the establishment, acquisition and investment of disruptive innovation companies. Companies that carry out subversive innovation are important engines of economic growth, but the most easily overlooked economic engine is yourself. If you really want to push the world forward, you need to achieve internal innovation and then subvert yourself.