Matt Eyring: an authority on disruptive innovation and growth.

• Author: Lewis, Di
• Position: Around Utah - Interview

Although Matt Eyring grew up in Bountiful and graduated from the University of Utah, he left the state more than 20 years ago and never really thought about returning. It took an offer from local powerhouse Vivint to bring Eyring back to the West again. He joined the company in January as chief strategy and innovation officer.

After working on the East Coast and in Minnesota, Eyring cofounded Innosight with Clayton Christensen and spent a decade at that company, most recently as managing partner. But now, back in Utah, he says he'll have to switch his family "out of the Patriot and Celtic jerseys and get them into Jazz and BYU."

Eyring had been keeping an eye on Vivint for a long time. "I just watched it grow up and morph into a pretty amazing company ... It started as a company who procured contracts for other companies, and steadily it's vertically integrated and does pretty much everything in the chain."

The most exciting thing, he says. was watching the company's conversion from APX Alarm into Vivint as a force in home automation. With Vivint's $2 billion acquisition by Blackstone. the company now has the capital it needs for accelerated growth.

Eyring's new role as Vivint's strategy officer entails figuring out what markets the company should be going after and what role they should be playing in the vertical integration.

"The company is changing to be a high-tech power," he says. "We have 30,000 square feet of just software and hardware engineers that are creating the next-gen home automation systems that will be able to go after these new verticals that we're targeting."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

On the innovation side, Eyring says he is figuring out what business Vivint should pursue and how it can inexpensively and quickly test entry into these markets. This innovation will...