When Steve Jobs said, “make our own stuff obsolete,” he wasn’t being clever.
He was being ruthless and right, two crucial characteristics of a top CEO.
And he was forecasting the future because in business today, raw, unfiltered disruption isn’t reckless. It’s the ultimate survival strategy.
Who Is the Top CEO Everyone’s Talking About?
Meet Steven Bartlett.
He’s the 32-year-old entrepreneur who co-founded Social Chain, became the youngest-ever Dragon on BBC’s Dragons’ Den, and now leads Flight Group, a $100 million media, tech, and investment empire.
He also hosts The Diary of a CEO, one of the world’s most downloaded business podcasts, with 4 million weekly listeners and a 10 million+ global audience.
What Is FlightX? And Why Did He Create It?
Inside Flight Group, Steve Bartlett’s cash cow, he launched FlightX, an independent innovation team with one single purpose:
Disrupt and replace the company’s own products before someone else does.
FlightX operates with its own budget, full autonomy, and zero bureaucracy, 100% modeled after Steve Jobs’ belief that companies must cannibalize themselves before competitors do.
This is not arrogance. This is adaptation at its highest level.
Why Most Companies Fail to Disrupt Themselves
In my 40+ years building and rebuilding brands, I’ve seen the same pattern destroy giants:
They fall in love with their own success.
Success builds systems.
Systems create approvals.
Approvals breed fear.
I once watched a $2 billion firm reject its own breakthrough because it might cannibalize 30% of revenue.
Eighteen months later, a startup launched that very idea.
The giant lost 70% of its market share.
Why My Rebrands Aren’t Cosmetic. They’re Existential
Most rebrands deliver a logo, a color palette, and a tagline—
cosmetic surgery when they need a kidney transplant.
It’s why I don’t do facelifts.
I perform organ transplants.
A real rebrand rewires:
→ Your identity, not just your visuals.
→ Your positioning, not just your tagline.
→ Your business model, not just your pricing.
Disruption isn’t about looking different. It’s about being distinct from your competition and unrecognizable to your former self.
Winners vs. Losers
- Losers: Protect what works.
- Winners: Destroy what works.
- Losers: Optimize today.
- Winners: Build for tomorrow.
- Losers: Listen only to current customers.
- Winners: Design for customers who don’t exist yet.
After $9 billion in brand transformations, here’s what I’ve learned:
The kid in their bedroom building your replacement doesn’t care about your quarterly earnings or your 50-year legacy. They’re just building something better.
The Bottom Line: Why Self-Disruption Wins
If you want to survive in 2026 and beyond, don’t just defend your success. Dismantle it.
Create your own “murder team.”
Permit them to challenge everything for one reason: