The Ways to New

Chapter 14Partnership-Led Disruption

We were sitting beside the Bosphorus, Levent Cakiroglu and I. Levent is chief executive of a big Turkish corporation named Beko, the number one firm in the European domestic-appliance sector and client of our Istanbul agency.

He told me he was about to hire a director of innovation. “Disruptive innovation,” he pointed out, because however interesting his engineers' suggestions were, they were always incremental, never disruptive.

He was curious to know what I meant by Disruption. He asked me how we did things and how Disruption, as a concept, had evolved over time. I gave him detailed examples of the innovation exercises we organize during our “Disruption Days,” with a particular emphasis on virtual partnerships. We use these sessions to devise unlikely partnerships that often turn out to be inspirational. Here's one example I gave. “Suppose you started a joint venture with L'Oréal. What product might you come up with together?”

The question was rhetorical, merely intended to illustrate how we function. All the same, he thought it over, stared into my eyes for a moment and exclaimed, “In hot countries, beauty products melt. I've noticed women often keep them in a refrigerator. I propose we devise a miniature, bedroom refrigerator for L'Oréal. Really elegant, like a pretty cigar box.”

I was thrilled that the exercise had proved fertile and in just a few seconds. But I replied that his miniature refrigerator was just one little idea. The point ...