ASU Professor: Some Businesses Struggle To Adapt, Innovate

By Julian Hernandez
Published: Monday, December 16, 2019 - 11:37am
Updated: Monday, December 16, 2019 - 11:38am

When SuperShuttle announced last week it was closing operations at the end of the year, some attributed the demise to the disruption caused by semi-competitors Uber and Lyft.

Andrew Maynard, director of the Risk Innovation Lab at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University, thinks some organizations are missing the key skills needed to survive in a rapidly changing world.

Uber and Lyft have caused a lot of disruptions in the short time they’ve been around. Some see it as a sign of more to come.

Maynard teaches students and entrepreneurs how to use technology to recognize and address future risks and challenges.

Maynard says business leaders of the past didn’t have to account for the constant and rapid advances in technology we see today. Now businesses need workers who are trained early on to see when things may be going wrong.

“The organizations, the businesses that survive are those that can actually look into the future and understand what’s going to threaten the value they’re trying to build, and they can take the actions to avoid those risks or to work around them," he said.

But instilling a culture of innovation takes time and money, often things struggling companies don’t have. And so Maynard says we should expect more disruptions in the upcoming decade

Business Science