Episode 11: A Three-Pronged Strategy for DIsruption

by | Feb 12, 2020 | Ed+Tech Futures Video

Welcome to Education and Technology Futures, a videocast that highlights interesting trends and connections in the worlds of education, technology, and culture.

We’re seeing a good, three-pronged strategy for market disruption in the food industry. New methods of production, new methods of distribution, and new merchandising. How will existing education institutions respond and/or adapt?

Full Transcript

Full Transcript

The big buzz isn’t about who won which Oscar award. Instead, people are talking about Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Flip phone teased in one of the commercials during the Oscars show.

Wait a minute. Flip phone? Foldable smartphone? Didn’t we already try that once?

Sure, but that was last year. This year Samsung is rolling out a new design, hopefully with the screen kinks worked out, and looking to disrupt a smartphone market that once defined disruption and is now the status quo. 

Speaking of a company looking to disrupt an entrenched market, what do you know about 80 Acres Farms? They are the world’s first fully-automated indoor farm system, placing 10,000 square feet indoor farms near metropolitan areas and delivering produce within a day of harvest. Great taste, no pesticides, longer shelf life, and lots of cool robotic technology.

80 Acres Farms was founded by two former food industry execs, who realized that three things would need to happen for any long-lasting, positive change to take place in the industry. The would need to grow things differently, change the existing supply chain and distribution channels, and embrace new models of merchandising and marketing. 

Hmmm…. wait a minute. Design more efficient and cost-effective models of production, change and magnify the way you distribute products into a crowded market, and embrace new models of merchandising and marketing?

I’m not sure what Samsung is thinking about for its new smartphone, but this three-pronged strategy for disruption seems like a good high-level playbook for any organization looking to innovate within a crowded market.

Even education you say? Especially education, I say, and it’s already happening.

We see parts of this playbook in Southern New Hampshire University’s recent partnership agreement with 14 community colleges in Pennsylvania. We see it in online charter schools and micro-schools. We see it in the spread of micro-degrees and credentials.

To be clear, we’re still in the early stages, but my guess is that by the end of the decade, the vast majority of educational institutions that are thriving will have adopted this three-pronged strategy.

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