Summer’s winding down and it’s time for people to get serious about closing out the year and looking forward to a digitally disruptive 2014. I can tell because the phone is ringing off the hook these days and nearly every call has the same focus: What steps can we take now to get the jump on digital disruption?
 
First, I’m thrilled to get these calls because implicit in the question is the belief that digital disruption is real. I’ve found that to be the case in the many months I’ve been on the road speaking about my book Digital Disruption and calling people to adopt the digital disruptor’s mindset. Very few people doubt the unique power of digital disruption, in fact, they often have better examples of disruption to offer me than the ones I came prepared to talk about.
 
But after the mutual thrill of excitedly comparing case studies, these conversations have rapidly settled down to the same question: What can we do about it? It’s precisely in that spirit that Tom Pohlmann, Forrester’s Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer, sat down with me to get the straight scoop on what companies can do right away to understand and act on digital disruption. The result is an 18-minute interview that we’re serving up as a podcast under the Forrester Talks Podcast. You can either listen to the whole thing in one shot (episode 1) or consume it in bite-size, topic-focused chunks under episodes 2, 3, and 4.
 
Give these episodes a listen and then investigate further what your company can do to make 2014 as digitally disruptive as possible by visiting forrester.com/disruption. You can even take a 5-minute assessment that will let you know how relatively ready you are compared to others to tackle the digital challenges and opportunities coming your way.
 

Episode 1 (note: this is the full episode, the other three are shorter cuts of the same conversation)

Title: Digital Disruption: Unleashing The Next Wave Of Innovation

Description: The barriers to entry in your market just vanished. Unexpected competitors are swarming in. Are you ready? Disrupt yourself now.

Running time: 18:56

Episode 2

Title: How Digital Has Changed Disruption

Description:  Disruption used to be expensive and time consuming. Today, cheap digital technologies and changing consumer behavior means nearly every industry can be disrupted simply by removing analog barriers and empowering customers.

Running time: 4:20

Episode 3

Title: Infusing A Disruptive Mindset In Your Organization

Description: Big companies can be as disruptive as their smaller, start-up competitors. But the disruptive mindset has to be pervasive; it cannot be owned by a particular executive or team.

Running time: 5:57

Episode 4

Title: Assessing Your Disruption Readiness

Description: How can you assess if your company is can compete in a digitally disruptive era? Forrester’s self-assessment test benchmarks four factors: energy, skills, policies, and practices. For more information on how Forrester can help you become a digital disruptor, go to forrester.com/disruption.

Running time: 10:01