Turning disruption into growth opportunity: the red team strategy

What is it about?

How can your organization turn disruption into growth opportunities! Extending a concept from the military context, we propose a red team strategy with four concrete steps to help companies achieve that: 1) Create a red team culture and encourage diverse perspectives, 2) Establish independent red teams to overcome organizational inertia, 3) Use the red team to embrace disruption and growth opportunities, 4) Take a milestone approach to red team execution and resource allocation.

Featured Image

Photo by Todd Diemer on Unsplash

Photo by Todd Diemer on Unsplash

Why is it important?

In The Art of War, ancient Chinese military general Sun Tzu said that to win in fighting, you need the main force to maintain defense, and a surprise force to secure victory. Those generals who are good at battles use the surprise force in infinite variations and combine the main and surprise force in unlimited maneuvers to attack the enemy and win the battle. Like surprise forces in war which help secure victory in battle, companies can use red teams to capture big growth opportunities, continuously innovate and rejuvenate the company and create dynamic capabilities.