DISRUPTION: Is it All in the Timing?
We have all seen the social media posts or read the tag lines that indicate how a striving company of the times did not put the long-term stalwart out of business, the failure to change put them out of business. Often someone will tie the failures back to disruption and the failure to change with the disruption…but is it really all in the timing of the disruption?
What if your company chose to jump at every possible disruptive technology? There is no way you can keep up! It would lead to a most certain change burnout. The magic is following the right technology changes at the right time and taking significant action to make the change work. A great example of the “slow to change” but “tech is driving changes industry”, is General Aviation (GA). This is an industry that is always on the verge of big changes, and at the same time is heavily regulated.
Disruption by technology has been in the air since 2009. Tablets, and specifically the iPAD, introduced an entirely new concept to the GA industry. Technology that could be used to display charts, provide information at the touch of a button (and read it out to the pilot), and who knew (at the time) what else. The long term pilots love to say, yes, but the iPAD runs out of battery and my charts do not, or information on the iPAD can be wrong because they are not official charts. These are old arguments from an age when technology could not stay powered up with a battery longer than a flight. Most GA planes can only hold enough fuel for 5 hours of regular flight, my iPAD battery lasts 10. Today, GA iPADs are hooked to external devices that provide instant weather, information, flight status and information about other planes, on a per second basis. Thus the updated information is definitely not a realistic argument. This is disrupting because iPADs in the cockpit are not regulated by the FAA. On top of that, nearly everyone that uses them embraces the supplementing safety that the features provide.
Here’s where things really go off the rails: the cost! GA is enormously expensive to make technology upgrades of any kind. Here is a simple example, mud flaps. Yes, planes can have mud flaps, just like a truck. The cost of the materials for mud flaps on a Cessna aircraft is around $22, yep twenty-Two. The cost after being “certified” for the plane, $1200! The same can be said for the electronics, and this is where disruption is continuing. In 2020, all airplanes entering certain areas (might as well be all planes), will be required to have a technology called ADS-B, we won’t go in to this, but needless to say those of us that use it now love it as a safety measure in flight.
You would think that with technology being what it is, the FAA requiring the change, and scope of the installations (every plane in the world), that this technology would be in reach of the average enthusiast. The reality is, it is like doing a cash retrofit of your car dash. The least expensive 9until recently) equipment was between 10% and 25% of the value of the average GA plane currently operating. This is where disruption is required and technology, at the right time, is providing it.
With 1 year to the deadline a company has developed as Bluetooth attached, owner installable ADS-B out device that costs ½ the price of the other equipment with zero install costs!
Skybeacon ADS-B out, is self installable by a pilot/owner of an aircraft
Talk to the avionics shop owner and they will tell you that this is a fad and it won’t stay around. Have you heard that before? Just like the Tablet was to heavy laptop users. It is also cutting in to the shop’s revenue, because it can be purchased from Amazon (of course). I propose it is the Avionic shop owner’s responsibility to not only embrace this but encourage the development of these disruptions. The more that autonomous vehicles hit the market, the more that GA will shrink in general. Embracing the technology makes the Avionics shops the Subject Matter Experts, and experts help to lead industry to new innovations. The timing is right. 5 years ago, the technology was not as mature and people where not as confident in everyday technologies.
This is a current example relative to my own life, if you need examples of timing look around you. Electric vehicles are another great example, we have had the technology for decades to make the current transition happen. How about how ordering, delivery and pickup of our shopping? the internet enabled this very early on, why now? Is it simply because we trust and expect it, is it all about the timing? Of course.
Embrace the right disruptions at the right time. Know that you will not always choose the right changes and do not be afraid to flex your company out of a change and in to a new one when it is obvious it is not going to work. Recognize when you have the opportunity to grow revenue, reduce expense or keep yourself out of trouble. Vicissitude is the only way to keep your business striving, and missteps are part of the process.
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*SNC is neither paid to endorse, nor a product investor in SkyBeacon. All references are to technology available on an open market basis.