This quarters disruptive startup: ISIS

Most agree that ISIS should be stopped, but no one is sure how- including President Obama. Top
Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf dubbed his speech last Sunday "unclear," and the consensus is
that we expected a plan of action but got stay the course.
On the other side of the spectrum in terms of both action and politics Trump suggests: a total
and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives
can figure out what is going on. Yes, he actually said that.
The right plan of action probably lies between doing nothing and shutting down everything, and
everyone is weighing in. The FBI and NSA want more access to encrypted communications to stay
ahead of potential threats. Apparently, however, the terrorists behind the Paris attacks used the same
non-encrypted text-messages you and I use to send emojis.
The US State Department preaches curing the disease fundamentally instead of treating symptoms.
Creating jobs and improving education will diminish the allure of groups like ISIS that alienated
youth turn to for a sense of belonging. Hard to argue against that, but its a long-term plan, not a
response that will stop terrorist attacks now or even soon.
Some suggest targeting radical recruiters on social media. Not only does this open up a debate on the
morality of censoring and limiting privacy on the internet, but ignores the complexity of the issue.
Tech gurus claim that identifying terrorist communications would be like finding a needle in a
haystack.
Whichever plan you fancy, the fact remains that the Paris attacks happened a month ago and were
no closer to a coordinated plan, nonetheless action. But why is that? If most of the worlds leaders
and top thinkers agree that a response is needed, why must we wait for it to arrive at the pace of
molasses?
The answer lies in an unlikely source: startups.
Small startups are taking business from established mega-companies. These disruptors are armed
with new ideas and the mobility to bring them to market efficiently.
Uber, barely five years old, is bringing down the taxi industry, which has been slow to adapt and may
not be around in five more years.
Netflix and Hulu are taking market-share from the jaded consumer-base of giant cable companies.
The common theme? Passionate people with new ideas challenging bloated institutions that cant
react quickly enough to cope, despite their vast resources. Sound familiar? ISIS isnt exactly
innovating, per se, but the global communitys struggle to cope is the same.
How does an institution, be it government or business, stay agile to keep up with these disruptors?
The two steps to outpacing change are threat recognition and response execution.
The key to recognition is free flow of information, both from the bottom-up and from outside-in, so
that an institution as a whole understands the threat.
The key to response execution is distilling that information into an actionable plan. Insights are just
a novelty if they dont spur action.
What Im describing is a process of innovation: sourcing new ideas and information to be harnessed
for tangible change. Big institutions must self-diagnose and use the right tools to stay agile and
innovate, or risk becoming a relic of the past like Blockbuster or taxis.
Hillary Clinton ties the two ends of my metaphor together, calling upon Silicon Valley in the
governments fight against ISIS: We need to put the great disruptors to work in disrupting." If your
institution cant reorganize for agility, you might as well recruit the writers of the agility playbook.

Sources:
http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/7/9864234/hillary-clinton-disrupt-isis-encryption
http://fortune.com/2015/12/10/why-the-social-media-giants-cant-ever-wipe-out-isis-
propaganda/
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2015/12/trump-muslims
a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our
country's representatives can figure out what is going on..
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/11/paris-police-find-phone-with-
unencrypted-sms-saying-lets-go-were-starting/
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/543566/dont-blame-encryption-for-isis-
attacks/
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/08/politics/fbi-comey-isis-encryption-recruitment/
Comey's FBI and the National Security Agency have called for the government to
have more access to encrypted communications.
Here is link to his testimony: https://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/oversight-of-the-
federal-bureau-of-investigation-8
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/us/politics/obamas-plans-to-stop-isis-leave-
many-democrats-wanting-more.html?_r=0
http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/democrats-fear-backlash-
obama/2015/12/08/id/704981/
Top Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf called the speech "weak and unclear."

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stop-isis-peacefully
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/we-cannot-kill-our-way-out-war
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151118/08474732854/after-endless-
demonization-encryption-police-find-paris-attackers-coordinated-via-unencrypted-
sms.shtml
http://thoughtleadership.ricoh-europe.com/eu/thenextdecade/disruption
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/The_keys_to_organizational_agility?
cid=orgfuture-eml-alt-mip-mck-oth-1512