In the 1950’s, Honda designed and built a motorcycle designed to compete in the US market, and in 1959, they sent a team of employees to Los Angeles to begin their marketing efforts. Their efforts were met with nothing but frustration and derision as most motorcycle dealers refused to accept the Honda motorcycles. The foray into the US marketed was a disaster, and the experience almost destroyed the company.

Honda had created a small, motorized bicycle, referred to as a Supercub, which could be used by distributors and retailers in crowded urban markets in Japan. They were very successful with this model in Japan, but after their experience in Los Angeles, Honda decided that a different model had to be created for the US market. While probably contemplating what a disaster his US experience had been, Kihachiro Kawashima, the Honda executive in charge of opening the US market, decided to take one of the Supercubs to the outdoors where he could ride the bike on some trails in the woods. His outdoor treks soon began to capture the interest of his neighbors, who soon began ordering Supercub bikes from Japan to complete their own off-road adventures. This led to the Kihachiro and his team in the US to convince Honda corporate management to quit their previous, failed, strategy and instead to focus on this totally new market.

From these very humble beginnings, Honda was able to move upmarket and, according to Clayton Christensen’s classic 1997 book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, “ultimately blew all established motorcycle manufacturers out of the market except Harley-Davidson and BMW, which barely survived”.

The story of the Honda Supercub is a profound example of why great companies fail, the focus of Christensen’s book. Great companies listen to their customers and invest into new technology and products. These traits can lead to a very profitable company, but they can also be the root cause of the company’s failures. At first glance, this seems like a paradox. How can the thing or things that make a company successful, which form the company’s greatest strengths, also be its greatest weaknesses?

The answer is disruptive technology. In his book, Christensen details how the “very decision-making and resource allocation processes that are the key to the success of established companies are the very processes that reject disruptive technologies”. One of the underlying reasons is that markets for disruptive technologies currently don’t exist. Therefore, they cannot be analyzed. The market for off-road dirt bikes did not exist. Honda originally attempted to enter the market by competing with an established technology, which almost resulted in a great company failing. Honda eventually succeeded because they were able to capture and learn from a disruptive technology and its emerging market.

The lessons vividly described in Christensen’s book are also applicable in education. At Robomatter, we are firm believers that the needs of our “market” (i.e. students, teachers, and schools) are not static, but change and evolve along with the technology in their world. That’s why we’re constantly innovating and iterating our ideas and curriculum. So, instead of creating a curriculum for 3rd graders, and then expecting that 3rd graders and their environment won’t ever change, we “build to learn”, creating STEM curriculum that is relevant for all students, not just today but also tomorrow. This requires agility and dedication to innovation, two things that are woven into everything we do.

In his book, Christensen cautions against rejecting disruptive technologies. But disruptive technologies can be scary, especially in a classroom full of kids. However, we can’t let our schools fail the way established companies often do. To that end, I plan to use this blog space to illustrate some of the innovations in STEM education we feel are important, and show how it’s possible to implement disruptive technology without disrupting your classroom. Why? Because when it comes to our students’ futures, there should be no dilemma.

Jason McKenna, Robomatter’s Director of Global Educational Strategy, is an accomplished educational practitioner and strategist with 20 years of classroom experience and success implementing STEM programs and Robotics competitions for students at all levels.

Image Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Super_Cub