Luke Williams - Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business

Disrupt is a simple yet incredibly powerful thought process that can help turn your business upside-down in seconds. Are you prepared to DISRUPT your business?

Martin Lindstrom, best-selling author of Buyology

Remember the old Apple tagline, urging us all to Think Different? In this book, Luke Williams shows us how to do precisely that. Disrupt helps you look at businessand the world around youthrough a fresh lens, one that turns assumptions and convention upside down. Best of all, this is a practical book for the real worldWilliams reveals not just how to come up with disruptive ideas, but how to nurture them, test them, pitch them, and ultimately make them real and profitable.

Warren Berger, author of Glimmer: How Design Can Transform Your Business, Your Life, and Maybe Even the World

Luke Williams has a powerful message for companies today: Dont wait for a couple guys in a garage to come up with an idea that will upend your business. With the tools he outlines in Disrupt, companies can light their own innovative sparks, ensuring that they will be their industrys pacesetters, instead of the ones left in the dust.

Linda Tischler, Senior Editor, Fast Company

If you need to drive disruptive innovation in your own organizationand you dothis is the guide youve been looking for. Luke Williams not only knows what it takes to create disruptive innovation. He knows how to explain it, in simple, clear, and practical concepts that anyone can use in their own organization. Buy this book if you want your work to make a difference.

David L. Rogers, executive director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership, and author of The Network Is Your Customer: Five Strategies to Thrive in a Digital Age

With its examples of game-changing disruptions, Disrupt is an essential read. This very practical step-by-step guide will enable you to successfully implement the think different imperative.

Stewart Emery, best-selling co-author of Success Built to Last and Do you Matter? How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company

Luke teaches us that the best in best practice is to approach a business with no fear and new eyes.

Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing, NYU Stern; Founder, L2

Luke Williams is the master at unleashing big thoughts. His book, Disrupt, shows us how to do what sometimes seems impossibleconceiving and executing bold ideas with massive potential. At the Nike Foundation, weve put Lukes principles to work and had tremendous results.

Stuart Hogue, Director, Systems at Scale, Nike Foundation

A truly timely book, Disrupt has the power to change the world for many of us by uncovering the act of innovative disruption necessary to keep evolving in the years to come.

Ric Peralta, CEO, ATTIK

The game has changed; to thrive and not just survive, companies need to shake up the status quo and be disruptive.

Bill Wackermann, author of Flip the Script

For those companies second-guessing their future paths, ponder no longer. Disrupt provides that path, and it may be your only real strategy in todays climate.

Andy Stefanovich, Chief Curator and Provocateur, Prophet

At some time, someone somewhere is going to disrupt your entire industry. Shouldnt it be you? In this easy-to-follow step-by-step guide, Luke Williams reveals a way of thinking that has the power to transform your business. Read this book before your competitors do.

Cordell Ratzlaff, Director of User-Centered Design, Cisco

Ive observed Lukes process of disruptive thinking generate remarkably innovative solutions. I hope that many more companies will disrupt their existing innovation processes to benefit as well. Theyll be glad they did!

Peter N. Golder, Professor of Marketing, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and co-author of Will and Vision: How Latecomers Grow to Dominate Markets

Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business

Luke Williams

Vice President, Publisher: Tim Moore
Associate Publisher and Director of Marketing: Amy Neidlinger
Executive Editor: Jeanne Glasser
Editorial Assistant: Pamela Boland
Development Editor: Russ Hall
Operations Manager: Gina Kanouse
Senior Marketing Manager: Julie Phifer
Publicity Manager: Laura Czaja
Assistant Marketing Manager: Megan Colvin
Cover Designer: Freddy Anzures
Managing Editor: Kristy Hart
Project Editor: Lori Lyons
Copy Editor: Sheri Cain
Proofireader: Apostrophe Editing Services
Indexer: Joy Lee
Compositor: Bumpy Design
Manufacturing Buyer: Dan Uhrig
Illustrations: Luke Williams

2011 by Luke Williams
Pearson Education, Inc.
Publishing as FT Press
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458

FT Press offers excellent discounts on this book when ordered in quantity for bulk purchases or special sales. For more information, please contact U.S. Corporate and Government Sales, 1-800-382-3419, .

Company and product names mentioned herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Einstein image: Arthur Sasse/AFP/Getty Images
Psycho shower image: Paramount Pictures/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing December 2010

ISBN-10: 0-13-702514-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-702514-5

Pearson Education LTD.
Pearson Education Australia PTY, Limited.
Pearson Education Singapore, Pte. Ltd.
Pearson Education North Asia, Ltd.
Pearson Education Canada, Ltd.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Williams, Luke

Disrupt : think the unthinkable to spark transformation in your business /Luke Williams.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-13-702514-5 (hardback : alk. paper)

1. Organizational change. 2. Creative ability in business. 3. Disruptive innovation. 4. Success in business. I. Title.

HD58.8.W544 2011
658.4063--dc22

2010033361

For my parents

: Crafting a Disruptive Hypothesis: Be Wrong at the Start, to be Right at the End

The initial spark for this book was generated when Michele Tepper put me in touch with Martha Cooley. The project was made possible by the vision, enthusiasm, and publishing support of Tim Moore, Amy Neidlinger, and Stewart Emery. Thank you all.

The creative community at frog design has provided an incredible home for the development of the thinking in this book. Special thanks to Sabah Ashraf, Valerie Casey, Ravi Chhatpar, Robert Curtis, Hartmut Esslinger, Robert Fabricant, Mark Gauger, Mikal Greaves, Chris Green, J Grossen, Jon Guerra, Cyrus Ipaktchi, Mike Lavigne, Tim Leberecht, Willy Loor, Doreen Lorenzo, Kristina Loring, Sara Munday, Howard Nuk, Mark Olson, Samir Patel, Mark Prommel, Adam Richardson, Patricia Roller, Mark Rolston, Christian Schluender, Jason Severs, Shady Shahid, Kate Swann, Michael Voege, and Carsten Wierwille. Prior to frog design, I worked with an inspiring cast of people in Australia who encouraged my interest in disruptive innovation: Don Barbour, Greg Barclay, Julian Ditchburn, James Duncan, Bernard Heaphy, Roslyn Herbert, Murray Hine, Liz Hutchinson, Susan MacDonald, Jacqueline Moth, Sam Pearson, Greg Ridder, Peter Robinson, John Scholten, Patrick Shing, and David Teller.