Design to Disrupt! Imperative to any Organization

Aug 14, 2014

Sogeti Labs

Seventeen years after the publication of Clayton Christensen’s book The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, his key concept of disruptive innovation is more alive than ever. Today, Principal Forrester Analyst James McQuivey defines the current prominent manifestation of Digital Disruption: Unleashing the Next Wave of Innovation simply as follows:

“Someone who knows how to use digital tools to do things better, faster or cheaper than before.”

Mr. Christensen had to admit that he had failed to spot this obvious SMACT angle on disruptive innovation:

“I have studied disruptive innovation for more than two decades. Here, McQuivey offers insights about disruption — and about the accelerating pace of disruption — that I truly hadn’t understood before. This is a very important book about what tomorrow holds in store; it shows us both what will happen and how to address it. I recommend it enthusiastically.”

In March 2014, The New York Times sounded the alarm bell over its own existence with an extensive innovation report on the digital threats to their business, and the exposure of their overconfident inability to act.

Their take on the matter: disruption is a predictable pattern across many industries in which fledgling companies use new technology to offer cheaper and inferior alternatives toproducts sold by established players (think Toyota taking on Detroit decades ago). Today, a pack of news startups are hoping to “disrupt” our industry by attacking the strongest incumbent — The New York Times. How does disruption work? Should we be defending our position, or disrupting ourselves? And can’t we just dismiss the BuzzFeeds of the world, with their listicles and cat videos? Here’s a quick primer on the disruption cycle:

1. Incumbents treat innovation as a series of incremental improvements. They focus on improving the quality of their premium products to sustain their current business model.

For The New York Times, a sustaining innovation might be our multimedia Internet production “Snow Fall.”

2. Disruptors introduce new products that, at first, do not seem like a threat. Their products are cheaper, with poor quality — to begin with.

3. Over time, disruptors improve their product, usually by adapting a new technology. The flashpoint comes when their products become “good enough” for most customers. They are now poised to grow by taking market share from incumbents.

Hallmarks of Disruptive Innovators:
– Introduced by an “outsider”
– Less expensive than existing products
– Targeting underserved or new markets
– Initially inferior to existing products
– Advanced by an enabling technology

About the author

Sogeti Labs

SogetiLabs gathers distinguished technology leaders from around the Sogeti world. It is an initiative explaining not how IT works, but what IT means for business.

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