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Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business

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In a business world of nonstop change, there's only one way to win the  Transform it entirely. This requires a revolution in thinking--a steady stream of disruptive strategies and unexpected solutions. In  Disrupt , Luke Williams shows exactly how to generate those strategies and deliver those solutions.
 
This book reflects Williams' immense experience creating breakthrough solutions at frog design, one of the world's leading innovation firms. Williams shows how to combine fluid creativity with analytical rigor in a simple, complete, five-stage process for successfully disrupting any market.
 
You'll learn why the most unexpected ideas draw the least competitors--and offer the greatest potential. Then, using many examples and a case study, you'll walk through every step of transforming disruptive ideas from conception to breakthrough business strategy.
 
Craft your disruptive hypothesis
Be wrong at the start, to be right at the end
 
Discover your best disruptive opportunities
Explore the most unexpected corners of your environment
 
Efficiently shape your disruptive solution
Avoid the resource-killer that is "novelty for novelty's sake"
 
Make your winning disruptive pitch
Under prepare the obvious, over prepare the unusual
REVIEWS "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 business--and the world around you--through a fresh lens, one that turns assumptions and convention upside down. Best of all, this is a practical book for the real world--Williams 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

"By artfully smashing ideas together--from Schumpeter to Tarantino, business to design--Luke Williams upends the ordinary, providing the reader with a motivational and pragmatic blueprint for innovative thinking."
- Jamyn Edis, Vice-President of Emerging Technology R&D at HBO

"At some time, someone somewhere is going to disrupt your entire industry. Shouldn't 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

"For those companies second guessing their future paths, ponder no longer. Disrupt provides that path, and it may be your real only strategy in today's climate." 
- Andy Stefanovich, Chief Curator and Provocateur, Prophet

"I've observed Luke's process of disruptive thinking generate remarkably innovative solutions. I hope that many more companies will disrupt their existing innovation processes to benefit as well. They'll be glad they did!" 
- Peter N. Golder, Professor of Marketing, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth 

"Luke Williams is the master at unleashing big thoughts. His book,  Disrupt , shows us how to do what sometimes seems impossible--conceiving and executing bold ideas with massive potential. At the Nike Foundation, we've put Luke's principles to work and had tremendous results." 
- Stuart Hogue, Director, Systems at Scale, Nike Foundation

198 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2010

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About the author

LUKE WILLIAMS is a leading business thinker, speaker and author having lectured in 21 countries & addressed the World Innovation Forum & the United Nations General Assembly. He is Professor of Innovation at NYU Stern School of Business and the founder of Idea Skills™.

Williams is the inventor of 30+ U.S. patents & has designed more than 100 products in industries ranging from transportation to finance, and healthcare to consumer electronics.

His views are regularly featured in media ranging from Bloomberg BusinessWeek & Fast Company to The Wall Street Journal & The Economist. He is the author of the international bestseller, Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business.

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5 stars
130 (26%)
4 stars
169 (34%)
3 stars
131 (27%)
2 stars
41 (8%)
1 star
14 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
Profile Image for Nick.
Author 21 books116 followers
November 29, 2020
A clever book written by the head of a clever design company that argues for overturning your industry by asking what the opposite is of every idea you take for granted. Like socks, for example. Why just pairs of socks, endlessly? Why not 3 in a pack, so you always have 2, and all three different (but coordinated) so that you don’t have to worry about mis-matched socks. A brilliant idea, and a company, Little MisMatched, that is an extraordinary success.
Profile Image for Becky.
155 reviews
July 18, 2017
Spent some time perusing and flipping through for ideas for a presentation. Will be a good reference in the future.
April 1, 2013
Most memorable quote
"[There is a] surplus of similar companies, employing similar people, with similar educational backgrounds, coming up with similar ideas, producing similar things, with similar prices and similar quality."

Tweet review
The step-by-step recipe book for cooking up ways to upend mundane businesses in ways that are meaningful to the user

Full review
Don't let my three star review fool you; Disrupt is an important read. I chose to rate it with three starts because the book is just as much a formula as it is a text. The most important part of this book is their four step formula to disrupting mundane, overlooked, unseen, unchallenged business practices. I don't think an entire text was needed to convey this formula.

Now that I've got that clarification out of the way, let me count the ways I liked Disrupt. The book takes a lean stance on product design (and business more generally), which I find immensely valuable. It focuses on testing and reviewing iteratively, with prototypes that invite conversations, arguments, and collaborations.

I liked its research approach as well. It focuses on both seeing problems as customers see them, and also seeing problems as customers unknowingly see them. That's to say, they take a lean ethnographic approach to research to see how customers consciously see problems, and also to reveal customers' tension points (those problems that are so mundane and industry-wide that everyone overlooks them).
Profile Image for Florence.
21 reviews
May 23, 2011
Brilliant book on how to create innovative products & services, complete with step-by-step instructions. It's like your own manual on conducting a innovation workshop. Recommended for anyone who is looking for new ways to shake up their business.
Profile Image for Richard Bravman.
36 reviews6 followers
July 10, 2011
I'm a fan of "design thinking" (Apple's secret sauce). I also believe that ANY industry can be disrupted, and probably will. Better to be the disrupter than the disruptee. This book, by Frog Design's CEO, provides insight into how... Recommended, with enthusiasm.
Profile Image for Diana Shaffner.
235 reviews3 followers
July 22, 2019
Even in our times where everything seems to be changing rapidly and constantly, there are still great opportunities for even bigger and better change. That change can be delivered not by improvement of what's already there but by total disruption. The author walks a reader through the stages of developing a disruptive idea and then executing on this idea. The individual steps seem a bit drawn out and overly lengthy. However, the main premise of the book which is to embrace the idea of being the disrupter rather than the disrupted is an important one. In the end somebody will disrupt your current industry and unless you are the disruptor, you will be one of the many frantically trying to catch up and rebalance.
43 reviews
October 14, 2022
Gives good view in importance of disruptive ideas and a process for generating and passing through those ideas. For a book I expect lot more content than what got covered there. Some of the examples are outdated too.
August 11, 2018
Starts off slow and very basic. Finishes with good advice on a 9 minute pitch for your disruptive idea. Will use the 9 minute pitch in the future to disrupt the way we think about how we do work.
Profile Image for Fatima.
10 reviews
April 1, 2019
good if you are trying to start a company that sells a product. not good if it's a service business..
Profile Image for Alvaro.
8 reviews
May 26, 2019
Enjoyable recipe for a different innovation method. It’s going to be a great reference for an attractive presentation structure.
Profile Image for Terri.
502 reviews5 followers
January 26, 2016
"So, how do you go about making disruptive thinking part of your skill set? Well, it's not about hiring the right people or spending more money on training or traditional approaches to innovation. The good new is that schools around the world are already teaching disruptive thinking to their students. The bad news is that , instead of being taught in MBA programs, this new thinking style is taught in design schools."

Those are the people currently being taught to think "disruptively." This book is about that- providing a framework to find and implement new ideas for the right reasons. And then how do you make that happen? Companies are generally most comfortable with the status quo, disruptive leaders are able to see what a company is capable of becoming with new ideas and changes.

It's fairly easy to think of small changes- a new color for a logo, switching up the work hours but disruptive hypothesis are ones that go well beyond the sort of obvious changes. For example, "what would happen if we didn't charge late fees for movie returns?" Netflix.

Luke Williams and his think tank ideas are here for the mere cost of a book.
Profile Image for Ninakix.
193 reviews25 followers
January 2, 2014
I skimmed through this book and have to say it's the only book that I've seen that actually captures a design process well for the layman reader. Too many design books are aimed at other designers, or at describing the design process for nondesigners (but not in enough detail that these people could actually perform a design process). That really helps with the mystique designers seem to have created for themselves, but isn't helpful in leu of the lack of design talent in certain industries. With that in mind, I'd recommend this as a companion to nondesigners who are forced to do their own design, though nothing is better than having an experienced, thoughtful designer.
Profile Image for Matthew Hodge.
636 reviews22 followers
August 1, 2015
I really like the concept here - about having a disruptive idea that you can break into the market with. So not just a better version of what you already do but a totally new idea to cut through.

However, because Luke Williams is writing from the perspective of a designer rather than a marketer, I sometimes found some of his examples and ideas to be less feasible than others. (Perhaps in my industry.)

Still, great framework for thinking about disruptive ideas and worth reading for a great chapter on how to present a 9 minute presentation on a new idea to senior management.

Well, worth a look, especially if you are in a work area where you have wild ideas and want to see them implemented.
Profile Image for Leader Summaries.
375 reviews47 followers
August 4, 2014
Desde Leader Summaries recomendamos la lectura del libro Ideas disruptivas, de Luke Williams.
Las personas interesadas en las siguientes temáticas lo encontrarán práctico y útil: innovación, técnicas de creatividad, innovación, desarrollo y cambio.
En el siguiente enlace tienes el resumen del libro Ideas disruptivas, Cómo pensar lo impensable y sorprender al mercado con productos poco convencionales: Ideas disruptivas
Profile Image for Jose Papo.
260 reviews151 followers
December 3, 2013
Very good book to help you have good disruptive ideas. Gives a structured process to think big and different. I also liked it because it´s not isolated from the customers. One of the steps in the process is to observe and use ethnographic tools to understand the customer hidden needs and see if your disruptive ideass could really make sense. Overall a nice and small book about disruptive thinking and how to apply it in your business.
Profile Image for Eugene Leventhal.
32 reviews4 followers
October 31, 2014
i thought this was a very good read. i had the pleasure of sitting through a lecture that Luke Williams gave, and if you read the book with his jovial personality and aussie accent in mind, it makes even more of a great read. the methodology he describes is and important one for anyone interested in creating new ideas/businesses. short, quick read that offers an overview at the end that can serve as a great guide once you've read the book. highly recommend it
Profile Image for Alan Kercinik.
356 reviews10 followers
December 16, 2011
Must read for anyone in the idea business. Some interesting thoughts and strategies to turning your ideas upside down. I hate creativity just for creativity's sake. (Like when George Lucas uses CGI for no other reason than to show off he can.) This book is about finding good, viable solutions to vexing problems. Great examples throughout.
Author 3 books2 followers
August 20, 2014
Craft your disruptive hypothesis Be wrong at the start, to be right at the end Discover your best disruptive opportunities Explore the most unexpected corners of your environment Efficiently shape your disruptive solution Avoid the resource-killer that is "novelty for novelty's sake" Make your winning disruptive pitch Under prepare the obvious, over prepare the unusual
Profile Image for Dave Gerhart.
139 reviews2 followers
October 22, 2014
I enjoyed this book a lot. If you are looking to grow and disrupt the norm, I would recommend this book. I read it through without having an idea of what I was going to develop. I will have to read it again when I want to disrupt and tackle a new project.
Profile Image for Anetq.
1,128 reviews54 followers
January 3, 2016
Manual for developing, prototyping, testing, presenting and selling your disruptive idea... Took me ages to get through this (only stubbornness got me through).
Profile Image for Anastasia.
45 reviews6 followers
March 11, 2014
Such an inspirational speaker and a very detailed how to book on how to think disruptively and how to create new industries.
Profile Image for Ishé Reyes.
54 reviews4 followers
January 15, 2015
Great case studies and very easy to start nailing the new way to think our modern lives require. Interesting.
Profile Image for Kelly.
100 reviews
Read
August 18, 2015
A quick read, and an interesting one. Mostly I enjoyed it for the examples of start-ups -- how each of them 'disrupted' the market in innovative ways.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews

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