Innovation Through Decoupling
Innovators usually unlock new business opportunities by directing their efforts at the “weakest link” in the customer journey — those points of friction, inconvenience, or frustration that established businesses often overlook. Thales Teixeira, a former professor at Harvard Business School In Africa's (and literally the World’s) rapidly evolving entrepreneurial environment, innovators are increasingly disrupting traditional business practices, challenging long-standing incumbents, and carving out their own spaces in the markets. This happens majorly, not by luck but, as a result of deliberate, strategic approaches rooted in the concept of “decoupling.” As Professor Thales Teixeira, a former Harvard Business School professor explains, decoupling involves analysing the customer value chain — basically, all steps from identifying a need to eventually disposing of a product or service. In many cases, established companies bundle all these steps together, hoping customers will navigat