English | EN Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) on Disruptive Innovation
Dec 5, 2014
Disruption is quickly becoming one of the most discusses topics in business and tech today. The concept of “disruptive innovation,” from Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, is discussed in Marc Andreessen, one of the key people behind the Netscape Navigator web browser and a cofounder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, latest tweetstorm.
1/Few intellectual concepts in our time have been mangled by observers more than Clay Christensen’s disruption idea. Some thoughts:
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) December 2, 2014
2/CC: “A disruptive innovation gives new consumers access to product historically only available to consumers with a lot of money or skill.” — Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) December 2, 2014
3/CC: “Disruptors offer a different set of product attributes valued only in new markets remote from, and unimportant to, the mainstream.” — Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) December 2, 2014
4/The key attribute of disruptive innovation is a new product for a previously underserved market–typically cheaper than existing product.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) December 2, 2014
5/This is inherently pro-consumer: Disruptive innovation only works if customers buy it–and if they do, lives improved vs prior status quo.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) December 2, 2014
6/Similar, disruptive innovation is only funded by investors who believe underserved market exists, customers will buy it, lives improved. — Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) December 2, 2014
7/It’s a fabricated myth that disruptive innovation is about destruction: It’s about creation–new products, new choices, for more people. — Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) December 2, 2014
8/Later, of course, new product often evolves to squarely take on incumbents serving established customers–cheaper & better for them too!
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) December 2, 2014
9/Disruptive innovation shrinks inequality, by bringing to lower-income consumers things that only richer consumers had access to before.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) December 2, 2014
10/If you are reading this, many of the things you own that make your life better are the result of prior disruptive innovation. — Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) December 2, 2014
11/Printing press disrupted books from scribes; recorded music disrupted live concerts in homes, washing machines disrupted live-in maids. — Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) December 2, 2014
12/Rich people always had books, music, clean clothes, etc.; disruptive innovation made these things available to many more people.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) December 2, 2014
13/In exact same way, sub-$50 smartphones as disruptive innovation to PCs bringing computing & Internet to far more people than status quo.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) December 2, 2014
14/To be FOR disruption is to be FOR consumer choice, FOR more people bring served, and FOR shrinking inequality. — Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) December 2, 2014
15/To be AGAINST disruption is to be AGAINST consumer choice, AGAINST more people bring served, and AGAINST shrinking inequality. — Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) December 2, 2014
16/If we want to make the world a better and more equal place–the more Christensen-style disruption, and the faster, the better!
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) December 2, 2014
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