Luke Williams
This March, one of the most anticipated events at ISPA EXPO will be the keynote by Luke Williams, a leading educator and consultant on innovation strategy. Williams will discuss the idea of disruptive thinking and fostering a culture of game-changing leadership.
Williams is a fellow and former creative director at frog, one of the largest and oldest innovation-consulting firms, which worked on such iconic products as the first Apple Mac and the Sony Walkman.
He is also the author of Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business, and is a professor of innovation at NYU Stern School of Business, where he teaches graduate-level innovation courses.
“What we’re doing is we’re trying to make sure innovation and entrepreneurship is a key part of business education for the 21st century,” said Williams. “Business education is rapidly changing.”
Williams said he focuses on disruptive innovation rather than sustaining innovation—a key to making meaningful change and finding unexpected solutions.
“Sustaining innovation is making incremental improvements and changes,” Williams explained, adding that this is the kind of innovation most companies are focused on.
“Any company that gets themselves on an incremental change path is in a dangerous position,” said Williams. “It’s a path that becomes narrower and narrower till you eventually reach the end of that path, and by that time, customers have forsaken them for a new offering that no one saw coming.”
Disruptive thinking, on the other hand, is at its core about thinking what no one else is thinking and doing what no one else is doing, said Williams.
“Disruptive innovation completely surprises the market with unexpected solutions,” he explained. “It can completely change the competitive dynamics of an entire industry and take it into its next generation.”
Williams said while most leaders say they value innovation, 98% of them don’t have a structure in place to reward real disruptive thinking—instead, they only reward for incremental innovation.
“It takes an enormous amount of courage to reward people for disruptive thinking,” he said.
Disruptive thinking is not just for new companies trying to find a niche in an established industry—on the contrary, it’s incredibly important for established and successful companies to be thinking this way, said Williams.
“Don’t wait until someone backs you into a corner,” he said. “You have to be making bold moves, even when you’re at the peak of your success—especially when you’re at the peak of your success, which is often when you’re most vulnerable.”
Williams will deliver his thought-provoking keynote address at the ISPA Industry Breakfast at ISPA EXPO, Friday, March 28 from 8-10 a.m. in New Orleans.
