A tale of disruption

There is a very interesting post on the Innosight Blog. It tells the story of how the managers at Western Union failed to see the potential of the telephone.

This was the firm's managers' conclusion: "The ‘telephone’ has too many short-comings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."

The last paragraph of the Innosight post is valuable: it basically argues that you cannot "research" markets that don't exist. And the only way to really know if a product offering will succeed is to "plan to learn" using "low-risk market tests."

Dipping a toe in the water. One customer at a time. Patient for growth, impatient for profit. Find a profitable business model, quickly.

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