Within the global 3rd Party Logistics Industry disruptive change is not only present, it’s a huge contributing factor that drives business in general. Through larger databases, new forms of transportation, advanced technology, and more improved ways to think about logistics on a global scale, things are always changing. In the logistics world you really only have two options, adapt or fail. The industry itself doesn’t just affect how we operate though, when working on a global shipping scale external forces drive everything we do. From foreign governments and policies, to differing customs regulations, and new competitors entering the market with a whole new set of tools changing is just part of everyday culture. I like what Hillman stated about culture, according to Hillman “culture is defined by a relatively small number of change agents who operate at the tops of these mountains. It takes less than 3-5 percent of those operating at the tops of a cultural mountain to actually shift the values represented on the mountain” (p.8). The point is its all about your culture. If you want to be agent of change for an industry, then do so. It doesn’t take an army, it only takes a few with the willingness to see change through.
Hillman, OS. (2011). Change Agent. Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House.

In my line of work, federal rules and regulations are constantly changing. It’s imperative to the success of my company that we educate ourselves on these new rules and regulations in order to stay compliant. Recently my company had to adapt to the new rules and regulations of Dodd Frank. This new regulation affected about 25% of our company’s business. Our options were to either comply or get rid of the affected part of the business. Our company decided it was in our best interest to comply. Similar to the change agents, my company implemented a new task force (Daft, 2014) to fulfill these new demands that were placed on our company. In doing so, my company has created a permanent team (Daft, 2014) to engage in these new endeavors. This in turn results in increased volume because other companies are not willing to comply with these new regulations and my company was able to purchase the other company’s affected business.
Daft, R.L. (2014). Management (11th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning

Reverting back to my military service disruptive change is a way of life. It drives the basic existence of why the military is needed. Changes in the world represent the need of protectionism. Protecting ones place and values among the thousands of other’s perception on how you should be is disruptive to your own firm. Failure to adapt to each situation is a recipe for failure and future disasters. As stated by Burke, Trahant, and Koonce (2000), “Today’s business world is rife with upheaval and turbulence. In this environment, companies must learn to manage change as never before” (pg. i). Organizations such as the military should handle change as a normalcy to everyday life. Accepting this as the norm prepares you for the unexpected and when the entire groups accepts this; rectification can begin to allow acceptance of the change or prepare yourself to alter the disruption. The latter is more prevalent in the military.
Burke, W. W., Trahant, W. J., & Koonce, R. (2000). Business climate shifts: Profiles of change makers. Boston, MA: Routledge.

Change in the global environment is inevitable but attempting to lead the change can be challenging. Since disruptive change is considered irrational and unstable, managing this type of change cannot be prevented. When I consider disruptive change from the financial and payment services industry and most recently, I consider the e-commerce environment and fraud to be disruptive partners. There continues to be an unprecedented amount of vulnerabilities discovered that can compromise account and cardholders finances and personal information. In terms of the 4 management functions, our industry attempt to be a change agent from the controlling aspect. The controlling aspect is applied by continuing and providing along with promoting resources to our internal and external customer on fraud and data loss prevention tips.
Daft, R. (2012). Management (10th ed.). Mason , OH : South-Western

The single-cup brewer transformed the way people brew coffee. Within a decade of the brewer’s introduction, people changed brewing habits. In 2015, 25% of US households own a single cup brewer.
Dr. Clayton Christensen’s disruptive innovation model focuses on companies improving their product provide an opening for a lower tier, less complex product to enter the market (Christensen, 2016). In the food industry, the model often turns upside down. Rather than making product improvements, cost reductions often reduce the product quality or value over time. This allows a competitor, or new entrant, to introduce a better tasting, greater value product.
Using a single-cup brewer, consumers quickly recognized that they could brew café quality coffee at home for less cost per cup. In this food industry example, many branded coffee providers quickly made arrangements to provide pod packages. Another option would have been to recognize the value of the new technology and be early entrants to the market. In this case, the leaders at a small Vermont based coffee company wisely partnered with the upstart brewer developers.
Ackerman, A. (2012, November 16). GMCR’s path to disruptive innovation. Consumer Goods Technology, 21(10), 6-10.
http://www.claytonchristensen.com/key-concepts/

Higher education has been shook significantly with waves of disruptive changes. As the video mentioned, online Universities are popping up everywhere making affordable and flexible options for traditional and non-traditional students. As a recruiter, I have spoken with hundreds of traditional and non-traditional students at the undergraduate and graduate level. Though more than half still prefer traditional classroom style instruction, I predict within ten years there will be more online and iTV classes than face-to-face. Not too long ago some older professors did not want the School of Business to offer online classes. Thankfully, there were change agents within respective positions who were courageous, visionary, and adaptive that proceeded with the change. Now, I could not imagine the School of Business without flexible online options for individuals working full time, with families, or from the allotted states. If we did not change our program options to be competitive then many of our online students would have went somewhere else, simple as that. Many people do not like change and “sometimes change is difficult but not changing is fatal” (Llopis, 2014).
Llopis, G. (2014). Every Leader Must Be A Change Agent Or Face Extinction. Retrieved February 16, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2014/03/24/every-leader-must-be-a-change-agent-or-face-extinction/#7347cc9e238b

Change Management has become an important topic in 21st century. Our leaders need to be ready for sudden or disruptive changes in the organization and in surroundings. The fierce competition, several new disruptive innovations and market full of volatile consumers demand for change management. Change management not only involves profit maximizing, being resourceful and having organizational skills, it insists on connecting the dots when opportunity is available. Change management requires “Change Agents”. Some of the characteristics of the change agents are: Multi-generational influence, Cultural intelligence, Global Market Wisdom, Consumers Demand Much More, Women Leaders are Ready to Drive In, Entrepreneurial Attitude, Technology, Crisis Management, Thought Leadership and Evolution of the Business Model. Change Agent, infused with all these skills can handle disruptive changes as he is ready to act at any level of hierarchy to seize the opportunity fearlessly.
Llopis, G. (2014, March 14). Every Leader Must Be A Change Agent Or Face Extinction.Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/

In the industry I am involved in there has been a large change that has caused a lot of chaos for several bookstores. Nebraska Book Company was bought out by Follett over the summer, which added approximately 200 new storefronts and 200 new contracts to the now largest college bookstore retailer in America. This was going to be a great move for Follett but they stuck with a traditional vertical structure with the transition, bringing on transitional team leads to help move the existing stores into the Follett corporate culture. This strategy to adjust for change was very mechanical in its approach and left a lot to be desired. As Daft points out, there was poor communication across departments and slow responses when stores were in need of help. This left a feeling of “being left to the wolves” by several transitional stores. To top off the way the change was not handled to the best of its abilities, Follett’s FY16 sales were not hitting the projected targets.
Follett is currently working with a more flexible approach to try and figure out how to better understand their newly acquired stores and focusing more on the team based surveying system to address the needs of the stores. Ultimately an acquisition of a company was very exciting for some higher ups but on the store level caused confusion and thus a loss in sales due to how it was handled in a top-down management style.
Daft, R. (2012). Management (10th ed.). Mason , OH : South-Western

Currently, in the payment card industry there have been changes that can disrupt businesses that accept credit/debit cards for payment. According to Povey, there is a global migration where magnetic-striped transactions are moving to a more secure EMV (Euro, MasterCard, Visa) chipped transactions. There are changes to technologies, business processes, and overall customer experience that have to be assessed and considered based on the impacts from the card payment model, that are imperative. Due to the amount of fraudulent transactions there has been a global effort to standardize chip read transactions since the late 1990’s (Povey, 2008). At my current employer, Equipment Locator Services, we encounter many business operators that are not aware of the EMV changes or how it impacts their business. Often there are people that have no clue who their processing company is, the ones putting the transaction funds in their bank account! This has put a strain on the organization, having to continuously repeat the same information, often to people that are not even our customers.
Reference
Povey, I. C. (2008). Assessing the impact of EMV migration: A pragmatic delivery approach. Journal Of Payments Strategy & Systems, 2(4), 349-363.

Disruptive change, unlike incremental change, is quick, unstable, and most importantly unpredictable. Every industry is subject to disruptive change with new innovation, technology, and companies competing for market share. In the highway construction industry, changes in regulations, new products, new equipment, and changes in specifications are some factors contributing to disruptive change. Each of these factors has a direct and quick impact on the industry’s sales force, government compliance, engineers, and customers. A new regulation change can impact jobs on a large scale, costing money and time. Effective organizations should constantly be students of the market and industry to be able to prepare for such changes. All industries will have both disruptive and incremental change, which is a necessity for innovation. Forbes describes the difference between disruption and innovation: “Disruptors are innovators, but not all innovators are disruptors — in the same way that a square is a rectangle but not all rectangles are squares.” A leader, used in this case interchangeably with a “change agent”, will be the one who faces the disruptive change and then communicates a strategy to the organization. Furthermore, the true leader will turn the disruptor into an innovation.
Source:
Forbes contributors. (2013, March 27). Disruption vs. Innovation: What’s The Difference? Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2013/03/27/you-say-innovator-i-say-disruptor-whats-the-difference/#2c1428bcbd79

It would be hard to find an industry that has experienced more disruptive innovation than banking. There are many technologies that are always evolving, such as improvements to debit cards, interactive teller machines, and online banking. These are common topics and generally many people know of them so I am going to focus on Peer to Peer lending. A normal financial institution like a credit union or bank, takes in deposits and then loans them to other members or clients. A Peer to Peer institution is a new “process by which capital is raised for a project, initiative or enterprise through the pooling of numerous or relatively small financial contributions or investments, via the internet” (Jefrey and Arnold, 2014, p. 11). This is a very disruptive industry due to the fact that these institutions have lower regulatory costs and can offer more attractive yields for loan customers.
Organizations should handle change carefully. Many individuals like to assume that they can hedge against change or stop change from happening, which can lead to drastic consequences for the business.
Jefery, P., & Arnold, D. (2014). Disrupting banking. Business Strategy Review, 25(3), 10-15.