The Hidden Power of SMEs in Sustainability
The late Clayton Christensen created a famous theory about disruptive technology called the Innovator’s dilemma. The theory wasn’t popular with many business gurus because it kind of flew in the face of the accepted way of doing business.
Christiansen’s theory hinged on what one might call paradigm shifts.
For as long as a technology or a marketplace is evolving, seeing incremental changes, the pecking order, the list of leading companies, pretty much stays the same: so for as long as the main computer of choice is the desktop PC, and the default disc drive is 51/4 inch, the leading disc drive companies are much the same.
For as long as mobile phones are primarily phones, the leading companies-/ say Nokia and Motorola, stay the same.
But then we get a paradigm shift — and everything changes. Laptops become popular, the default disc drive becomes 3½ inches, and a new generation of disc drive companies become dominant. New upstart companies, previously regarded as making products little better than toys, become the new dominant players, and the former giants go bust faster than you can say Blockbusters.
Touchscreen phones emerged — in part thanks to Apple and Steve Jobs — but primarily because technological advances, such as Moore’s Law, advances in screen displays, the emergence of wireless Internet when you are out, and commoditisation of components made them possible — and Nokia phones became museum exhibits.
If you spoke to a car industry veteran around 2012 about electric vehicles, they would have given you a funny look and, with barely concealed impatience, explained their faults, with exasperation, pointing out reasons why Tesla would never become more than
a start-up and why Chinese automakers had no chance. But we saw a paradigm shift, and it
is traditional car makers that face existential threats whilst Tesla and China EV companies take on the veneer of invincibility.
Often, disruptive tech creates opportunities for new companies— consider Tesla and Monzo Bank.
Or think back further to how Microsoft and Amazon went from start-ups to world-beaters
Maybe climate change is a paradigm shift. And just as companies that dismissed 3½ inch disc drives, removed fines on lately returned DVDs, touchscreen phones, and EVs — calling them little more than toys — then struggled to survive, companies which embrace climate tech will be future corporate titans.
For small companies — green tech is an opportunity to disrupt the status quo.
Today’s guests are:
Jessie Broadway
Spearheaded sustainability strategies across global corporations for the last eight years; Sustainability Director at etOso a start-up on a mission to make sustainability accessible and actionable through software.
And: Dr Tuuli Bell Founded “The world’s first” sustainable pre-sales and sales consultancy.
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