10th
John Kay - Why Sony did not invent the iPod
Another excellent article by John Kay - one of my favorite thinkers. Picks up on the key theme of how incumbents are structurally unable to pursue disruptive innovation, something I wrote about at length earlier this year with a focus on Kodak as a case study.
However at the end of John’s article, he throws down the gauntlet and suggests that innovation in financial services (and education*) may be staved off forever (given the power of the incumbents.) I would differ. “Forever” (and its friend “never”) is always a dangerous word. This power has clearly delayed substantial disruptive innovation, and it won’t come easily, but already today we are seeing a Cambrian explosion of new, disruptive ideas, business models and companies going after various aspects of the financial services industry. Watch this space John!
(* alongside financial services, I would definitely agree that education is a massive and important industry that has heretofore been largely exempted from the pressures of disruptive change. I’d also say it’s coming there soon too. Indeed imho there should be an “Anthemis Group” for education…)
