76 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW SPRING 2020 SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU
DISRUPTION 2020: DOING BUSINESS WITH INTEGRITY
dominant. Chances are, you’ve created an efficiency by
removing or reducing the scope of some step. Learn
the history of how this step evolved, and consider the
safeguards ingrained within it: Are they regulatory?
Are they related to standards? Are they social con-
structs? Consider the protections inherent in restricted
access: What education or training did those with ac-
cess have? If it helps, imagine how a horde of naive
teenagers might misuse or misunderstand your ser-
vice. Definitely contemplate how it may be used by
malicious actors. Safeguards have protected consum-
ers as well as the market. Know them, and plan for
how they will be addressed in the future state.- Identify who is responsible for delivering
these capabilities. In some cases, it will be crystal
clear: Ride-share services could not survive without
trust in drivers, so Lyft and Uber must ensure back-
ground checks are done, even if they don’t conduct
them directly. In other cases, it won’t be obvious: Are
3D printers “just a platform” facilitating exchange
between model designers and consumers? Leaders
need to anticipate that they’ll be held accountable
for the failures of the changes they usher in.
To put these recommendations into practice, it’s
important to assume success, understand the gaps,
and take responsibility for the future that will be cre-
ated. The particulars of implementation will vary by
industry and company, of course. But we believe
strongly that these three actions are key to recognizing
where ethical uncertainties may arise from modular-
ity and how to responsibly navigate that change.
THE MODEL FOR the Liberator, a 3D-printable
plastic gun, was downloaded more than 100,000
times before a federal judge blocked the posting of
3D gun blueprints online.^3 Lucky for us all, not
every household has a 3D printer; the printed parts
have to be meticulously assembled; and, even when
built correctly, the gun produced is unreliable (it’s
just as likely to misfire on its owner as on the in-
tended target). In time, these complications will be
worked out. But that also means there’s time for
regulators to plan for the obvious threat.
In other arenas, we should be more concerned.
Industries such as lending, media, employment, and
health care as we know them have evolved over the
course of decades; their protections were sometimes
hard-won and sometimes inherent in the very natureof the previous operators or target audiences. Faster
than ever, disrupters and large corporations alike are
reforming these value chains to take advantage of
blazing-fast transfer of information, the application
of artificial intelligence, and the creation of market-
places and networks that distribute low-margin
work. It’s optimistic and reckless to assume that the
existing protections will automatically port over to
the newly modular systems.
Strict compliance with the laws, while crucial, is
also insufficient to avoid the ethical pitfalls. In a
piece for CNN Business, the former COO of
Cambridge Analytica, Julian Wheatland, reflected
on the scandal: “Cambridge Analytica made many
mistakes on the path to notoriety. But its biggest
mistake was believing that complying with gov-
ernment regulations was enough and thereby
ignoring broader questions of data ethics and pub-
lic perception.”^4
Lesson: The only rational solution is to embrace
new ethical paradigms in a thoughtful way. Every
executive should imagine the future that is bound
to arrive and consider both the path toward con-
sumer delight and the systemic protections that
will be required.
Max Wessel (@maxwellelliot) is chief innovation
officer at SAP, responsible for technology research
and product incubation efforts. Nicole Helmer
(@nikkihelmer) is a decision scientist at SAP,
working at the intersection of customer experience,
emerging technologies, and new product develop-
ment. Comment on this article at http://sloanreview
.mit.edu/x/61303.REFERENCES- J. Stempel, “Judge Lets Facebook Privacy Class Action
Proceed, Calls Company’s Views ‘So Wrong,’” Reuters,
Sept. 9, 2019, http://www.reuters.com. - Building on a theory popularized by Kim B. Clark:
C.M. Christensen, M.E. Raynor, and M. Verlinden,
“Skate to Where the Money Will Be,” Harvard Business
Review 79, no. 10 (November 2001): 72-83. - C. Domonoske, “Federal Judge Extends Order
Blocking 3D Gun Blueprints From Internet,” NPR,
Aug. 27, 2018, http://www.npr.org. - J. Wheatland, “I Was a Top Executive at Cambridge
Analytica. It Taught Me a Tough Lesson About Public
Trust,” Perspectives, CNN Business, Aug. 19, 2019,
http://www.cnn.com.
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