This presentation was given to a seminar at the Department of Health on 18 March 2015. The presentation focuses on understanding the nature of disruptive change, in an information technology context, and how to react to it.

The title 'regarding Henry' is a reference to the changes in the automobile market brought about by the introduction of the Model T Ford. 15 million Model Ts were built by Ford between 1908 and 1927.

This is the scope of the presentation.

Disruptive innovation isn't about winning a technology race, but about delivering innovations aimed at a set of customers whose needs are being ignored by industry leaders. A disruptive innovation trades off performance along one dimension for performance along another, such as simplicity, convenience, ability to customize, or price.

The key is to know which tradeoffs the consumer is willing to make.

A disruptive innovation allows a whole new population of consumers access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or skill. Once a truly disruptive product or service takes root in simple applications at the bottom of a market it can move relentlessly up market, eventually displacing established competitors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_innovation

This model shows that if innovation incrementally improves an existing product, the incumbent is likely to stay in front.

When innovation changes the market, delivering performance that customers want and can use, the disruptor wins the competition.

Christensen: "Generally, disruptive innovations were technologically straightforward, consisting of off-the-shelf components put together in a product architecture that was often simpler than prior approaches. They offered less of what customers in established markets wanted and so could rarely be initially employed there. They offered a different package of attributes valued only in emerging markets remote from, and unimportant to, the mainstream."

The challenge for the APS is deciding when to adopt a new technology. Technology is normally overhyped initially, fails to perform as promised and eventually finds a level of achievement, not as high as expected but above what was done previously.

"Gartner Hype Cycle" by Jeremykemp at en.wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gartner_Hype_Cycle.svg#/media/File:G...

Recognizing the changes in the broader business environment
Developing the necessary adjustments for their company’s needs
Training their employees on the appropriate changes
Winning the support of the employees with the persuasiveness of the appropriate adjustments

Need common vision
What is changing and why
Engage stakeholders

The govCMS story is told here: http://www.finance.gov.au/taxonomy/term/1296/

The cloud services panel story is told here: http://agencysearch.australia.gov.au/search/search.cgi?collection=agencies&...

Taking risk