Respect will disrupt some industries, but not others
Disrupt Retail
RespectRFID will
meet unfulfilled needs by decreasing cost of labor, decreasing cost of theft,
while
increasing number of customers
Respect will also decrease inventory costs.
Disrupt
Theft
Respect may increase the recovery of property stolen from homes and businesses by 5X.
This is a major improvement
Not Disrupt Delivery, Supply Chains
RFIDs could be applied in FedEx, UPS, and Supply Chains, but would probably not make any major improvement.
FedEx and some 70 other package delivery services in the U.S. have fairly
efficient operations based on bar codes.
In many cases the bar codes are printed out by the customers of the delivery service
Many supply chain companies have not been able to spell ROI with RFID.
Disruptive Technology concept is from
book:
The Innovator’s Solution – creating
and sustaining successful growth
2003, by Clayton Christensen, the
author of Innovators Dilemma
Disruptive
Innovations should not attempt to bring better products to established customers
in established markets.
They must identify the potential customers who have a
job which is being poorly accomplished.
Simpler, more convenient, substantially
less expensive.
The author gives many examples
of the difficulty of selling a new product thru the same channels as a competing
product.
The sales people will rarely sell the new/disruptive product
aggressively.
The sales people know how to sell the old product, know its
strengths and limitations,
and often are paid to deal with the old product
limitations (e.g. with lucrative service/support contracts).
Respect should NOT expect that an existing RFID company would be able to sell RespectRFID.
There would be just too much internal and individual resistance for all RFID
companies, except those which might perceive
RespectRFID as being a way for them
to significantly gain market share, or save the company.
“Brands are, at the beginning, hollow words into which marketers (or
word-of mouth, e.g. viral agents) stuff meaning”.
If the brands meaning is to get a job done, then the consumer will ‘hire’ the brand when
confronted with that job.
From a previous article by the author in Harvard Business Review
1. Disruptive innovations spur growth.
2. Disruptive businesses either create new markets or take the low end of an established market.
3. Disruptive opportunities require a separate business-planning process.
4. Don't try to change your customers—help them.
5. Integrate across whatever is not good enough.
6. Be patient for growth but impatient for profitability.
In Nov 2004 the co-author wrote and article on RFID and Disruption at a subscription website.
Here is a copy of an editorial of that article.