How do you adapt to disruption?
William Davenport (Topgolf): We look at ourselves as the disruptor. We are changing how people think about where they go for entertainment. People are gravitating more toward social, interactive entertainment rather than just going to a bar, a movie or casual dinner. It’s a tough industry, and you see now movie theaters are trying to change and make the experience more entertaining. Bowling alleys are doing the same thing; bars and places like Punch Bowl Social are bringing all kinds of new games into play. And that’s what we do already – the Topgolf experience has many layers – play, food and drinks, music and a sense of community.
Warren Ivie (Advertising and marketing services company Ivie & Associates):With traditional retail, they have traditional thoughts of promotions and sales and how they go do business. The disruptive aspect is challenging. We have a digital department that does nothing else all day everyday but understand where that next great push is going to be. It’s moving so fast that retail can’t keep up with it.
Nina Vaca (Workforce solutions provider Pinnacle Group): We’re doing a lot of things in terms of disruption. Most of our innovation is around technology and how we run our business. At Pinnacle, we’re doing our first project with robotic process automation (RPA) this fall to allow our associates to free up their time to focus on more complicated, engaging tasks. You would think that might scare some people, but the reality is that for us, it has been incredibly positive because we have simultaneously been growing rapidly while remaining committed to our high-touch model of treating clients as partners. By leveraging RPA, we can focus on clients’ needs more robustly and help our associates grow more quickly. There is a lot of value in freeing people to focus on what truly matters.