With disruption inevitably changing how businesses operate, you can’t afford to be complacent; else you risk being displaced by more agile players in your category.

Statistics show that the average life expectancy of a Fortune 500 company has declined. From 75 years, it has gone down to 15. In fact, since 2000, more than half of the Fortune 500 companies have gone bankrupt or been acquired or have simply ceased to exist.

In today’s episode of Leadership through Disruption, Stephanie Christopher (CEO, The Executive Connection) and Ashton Bishop (CEO, Step Change) talk about the top challenge business leaders face in the age of disruption.

The Challenge of Nailing Your Core

In dealing with disruption, leaders are experiencing the challenge of nailing their core, Stephanie points out in this interview. 

To effectively deal with disruption, your core as a business is a vital area you need to secure and protect. It is the key area or activity that your company focuses on in its operations.

When disruption hits your business, you need to decide: Which parts of your core are you going to continue to focus on? Which parts are you going to leave behind?

What’s Your New Direction?

When disruption hits your industry, you have three strategies: Be the disruption, bridge it, or avoid it.

1. Be the disruption. How can you leverage today’s technology to displace major competitors? How will you resource it and support it within your current organisation?
2. Bridge the disruption. Find a way for the new disruption and your existing business model to coexist. How can you transition your core business model so it acts as a bridge between the disruption and the status quo? How can you make sure your business stays cash-flow positive in the transition phase?

3. Avoid the disruption. You can avoid disruption by going premium. Find high-value, defendable niches that you can stake out.

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Stephanie Christopher is the CEO of The Executive Connection (TEC), the world’s largest CEO organisation with over 21,000 members in 16 countries through the global Vistage network. Stephanie’s role at TEC puts her in the heart of the Australian and New Zealand business community on a daily basis, speaking to CEOs and business leaders about the challenges and opportunities that they are facing.

Ashton Bishop is Australia’s first Predatory Marketer and the CEO of Step Change — an expert in pinpointing how businesses can grow by outsmarting their competitors. His niche is in strategy, where he has spent the last 14 years working internationally on some of the world’s biggest brands. He’s a business owner and serial entrepreneur — challenging, sometimes even controversial — but always focused on what gets results.