Many in the press are thinking that this is a disruptive move. If you ask me, I’d say it’s more evolutionary than revolutionary.
A few years ago, I was doing some foresight consulting for a large brick-and-mortar retailer, who, at the time was (and probably still is) worried about Amazon. In fact, every brick-and-mortar retailer was and likely still is, worried about Amazon, although I doubt Whole Foods was one of those.
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”
When I was in high school I, as probably many others did, found my families religion a bit wanting and did a little dabbling in a number of different “ways”, spending most of my time reading up on and learning about Zen Buddhism. There was something about Buddhism that I liked, the human centered approach mostly, the idea that you were the focus of your life and followed your own rules, not ones put down by some higher being we may or may not know exists. Additionally, I loved the meditative aspects of Zen, the practice of zazen which has adherents (or aspirants) sit and meditate, clearing your mind of all thoughts, attempting to attain a completely empty mind or at least filled with only a single thought or concept, but ideally completely empty. I even wrote a book, way back when I was in sales, about using zazen to help you chill out when the phone wasn’t ringing with orders. (That’s right, I wasn’t always about disruptive innovation.)