A quote in a recent HBR article:

The examples of companies that they sited were interesting:

Uber (clearly disruptive)

Tesla (disruptive distribution model)

Netflix

But the ones that struck me as super interesting:

UPS and Schwab

While Schwab was a historical transformation (it happened years ago) – it was UPS  that struck me.  You would think that UPS wasn’t in an industry that could be streamlined any further however they have recently purchased a CloudDDM which is a 3D printer company.  They have installed a bevy of 3D printers in the middle of their campus and can now 3D print parts and send to their shipping facility across the ‘alley’ and get them to the clients’ customers within 24 hours!  Thats interesting because someone at UPS realized that the 3D printers could impact their business if the printers were getting closer and closer to the end client.  They jumped into the business and help facilitate a faster response for THEIR clients which in turn generates a different revenue stream (digital manufacturing) for themselves.  Even though it won’t happen for years or even decades – they are transitioning.

For more details on the Schwab and the other businesses – read the whole article here

What does this have to do with you and your business?  Look at the top quote again:

Ultimately, all businesses are transitional — we just can’t predict precisely when or how.

Keep looking ahead to see what could happen or may happen and plan a strategy for addressing it.

I can help with that.  Getting an outsiders opinion on where your current business is always a good idea….