The choice is simple – disrupt or be disrupted

Last Tuesday I had pleasure in attending the superb inaugural Digital Disruption Summit in London drawing a blend of 450 attendees, fantastic speakers, great discussions and an expertly curated day. I am bursting with inspiration. Below is some of what I learnt:

A key theme was the good old days of business are gone forever. Digital disruption is now.

“Technology Disruption is completely transforming business and new ways of how we work. It’s happening now” John Straw.

The event host cited the example of ‘pre-emptive’ health startups disrupting the large Pharma companies with companies like DNA testing 23andme upending traditional health prevention

Paul Clarke the CTO of Ocado riveted the audience describing Ocado’s fascinating application of robots, Data, AI and Cloud at Ocado and explained the challenge of “Digital disruption requires a rethinking of the entire business”

Shortcomings in organizational culture was another theme widely discussed throughout and one of the main barriers to company success in the digital age. Jane Buck Global Director of Personal Care Innovation at Unilever reminded us that championing innovation in large complex enterprises can be a very lonely business so having a buddy internally can really help benefit momentum

Innovation is not just happening in technology devices but also in our bodies. A hugely entertaining talk was delivered by cyborg visionary, Scott Cohen, convinced the audience that inserting titanium rods into his chest might be a logical progression for the senses.

The panel debate conversations also gave some superb insights. One of the best I watched Investing in disruption. Ben Lucket of Aviva ventures explained that investing in finance disruption was about preventative insurance recent investment in Cancer prevention Alstone Insurance and Virtaul Reality App for mental Health were two recent Aviva investments with may more to come

I learn about the extraordinary ease of hacking via mobile waves from the entertaining journalist Geogg White and Cybersecurity expert Geoff White

As explained in Rob Previtt’s closing remarks “To me the choice is simple – disrupt or be disrupted. If you don’t disrupt your own sector someone else will.”