"Make the Rules...Or Follow the Leader"

"Your choices are: either disrupt the market and make the rules, or follow the leader and obey his rules."

That's how Robert T. Murphy, President of BAE Systems-Technology Solutions Sector, explains his company’s success in the hyper-competitive defense services industry.

He spoke to a large audience in Resnik Lecture Hall on November 19 as part of the Whiting-Turner Business and Entrepreneurial Lecture Series. He cited several disruptions which changed major markets in the United States, signaling the launch of new companies and the weakening of others:

• Apple disrupts IBM and the computer business by introducing the PC
• Wal-Mart disrupts retailing and sends K-Mart spiraling
• Digital technology disrupts the film business, and Kodak struggles to adapt

Murphy detailed his company’s work in electronic subsystems, integration and information solutions, presented his evaluation of defense budget realities, and stressed the importance of strategies to disrupt the encroachment of defense platform providers and others in his company’s business areas.

Published November 11, 2004