This is the fourth and final installment of our conversation with Thales S. Teixeira, Lumry Family Associate Professor at Harvard Business School. Readers can find information on his book at https://www.decoupling.co/.
To read Technology Didn’t Disrupt Your Industry: Q&A with Thales S. Teixeira, Part IV, click here.
To read Technology Didn’t Disrupt Your Industry: Q&A with Thales S. Teixeira, Part III, click here.
To read Technology Didn’t Disrupt Your Industry: Q&A with Thales S. Teixeira, Part II, click here.
To read Technology Didn’t Disrupt Your Industry: Q&A with Thales S. Teixeira, Part I, click here.
To listen to [Podcast] Technology Didn’t Disrupt Your Industry: Q&A with Thales S. Teixeira, Part III, click here.
To listen to [Podcast] Technology Didn’t Disrupt Your Industry: Q&A with Thales S. Teixeira, Part II, click here.
To listen to [Podcast] Technology Didn’t Disrupt Your Industry: Q&A with Thales S. Teixeira, Part I, click here.
How do brands go about implementing changes or processes if they’re not equipped to do that? That’s the first step, correct?
That’s a great question. If we think about it, obviously, nobody disputes that we’re in a period of great change in customers, business models, and technology. It’s not always the case. It’s not that great change happens all the time, every two years, but we’re definitely in a big period now. If you look at it and think about it from your own point of view, when big changes happen in your life, it’s very important to have a support group. It’s very important to have people who have your best interest in mind. People who have gone through the change and who can tell you, “This is what happened to me. These are the pitfalls. This is what you should avoid.” That’s very helpful. In that regard, you shouldn’t do it alone. Just like when you sell a house, you shouldn’t most likely do it alone, if you don’t have any information about it. You should have the advice and expertise of those who have done it.
And so, at this point in time, being able to look inside your company for those people who didn’t change agents as well as outsiders who can help you at the very least, not tell you what to do, because I don’t think they should. But [who can] at least say, “I’ve observed these other companies go through these changes, and these are the pitfalls that are most common, so if you can avoid those common pitfalls, you already have a much higher chance of success.” This is a very important aspect of combining insiders—nobody will know more about your business, your market than you. Outsiders are those who look across markets, because what we’ll see is that the pattern is virtually the same.
The same problem that Ford is facing, Sheridan, and Hilton are facing, and The New York Times is facing, and retailers are facing. The challenge is that executives are too focused on their industry. They have to kind of walk out of their industry and look at what’s happening, because the pattern of disruption is cutting across industries, because the element in common is actually the consumer.
If you like neuroscience and neuromarketing, you know something very valuable, which is the consumer only has one brain. The consumer does not have a TV-buying brain, a car-buying brain, a hotel-staying brain, a news-buying brain. It’s all the same brain, and they use the same message and processes, so we need to understand across industries to understand the fundamentals of the customers changing behavior.