Once upon a time a disruptor or disruption was a bad thing. Remember when you got sent to the principal’s office for disrupting class? But these days it seems everybody wants to be the next disruptor, and that’s seen as a good thing. 

I’m confused.

It must go back to the old expression, “You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.” The idea is that progress rarely happens without something or somebody getting hurt. Still, the end is seen as justifying whatever it took to get there.

Take a look at how it works inside your business. You probably don’t naturally embrace disruptions in your business. You want things to run smoothly and efficiently. But if you continue to do everything the same way you have always done it, you are likely to have competitors speed right by you. That’s disruptive, too. No one can just stand still in business.

Companies that adopt principles of continuous improvement try to institutionalize internal disruptions to keep the upheaval to a minimum and maximize progress at the same time. That’s easier said than done, but companies that embrace a culture of continuous improvement learn quickly that they are also embracing to some degree a culture of chaos. Maybe it’s mostly controlled chaos, but chaos, nonetheless.

From the outside, business disruptors are basically looking to profit from what amounts to a scorched-earth policy. They want to create a new business model that does away with competing older business models. Obviously, they are more focused on the profit to be gained by their disruptive idea than the potential damage it might do to pre-existing models. The goal is to create a new paradigm and never look back. Successful disruptors are heralded as business heroes and compete with pop stars for the top slots on celebrity A-lists.

I’ve been on both sides of the disruptive way of life. I lived in Silicon Valley when Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were driving their first Porsches in the early days of Apple. I bought machinery for my first small manufacturing business from an engineering student at Stanford who later built the first Apple mouse prototype. It was an exciting time, but it also was very disruptive for businesses and whole industries that could not keep up with the change.

Today’s economic upheaval is like that but much faster. Disruptions happen before you know it. Then you have to deal with the consequences, but by then it might be too late. The current business climate is like surfing. You’ve got to stay out in front of the wave, or the wave will take you under. Standing still or waiting on the sidelines is not an option. 

You can’t take time to worry about being sent to the principal’s office for disruptive behavior. You need to constantly move forward to stay ahead of the disruptions that could overwhelm you and your business.