The 6 Most Common Misconceptions About Disruptive Innovation
In the nearly 15 years since The Innovator's Dilemma was published, the notion of disruptive innovation has grown in awareness immensely, particularly among tech startups, venture capitalists and angel investors.
It has become the holy grail for investors and entrepreneurs, with many funds targeting disruption exclusively. Yet, as strong as this meme has become, it is also one of the most widely misused and misunderstood terms among those same groups.
We can speculate about the reasons why. I think one reason is that the majority of those who talk about it haven't actually read the books or studied the theory. Another is that despite the strength of Christensen's observations and theoretical underpinnings for disruption, the language used to describe disruptive innovation is precise, but highly academic. In the video below, you can listen to Professor Christensen describing his theory in his words:
For many, the theory may make sense, but applying it to real world situations, including decisions regarding investments, business strategy, product design or marketing strategy is anything but straightforward. And, despite the numerous books and availability of online sources like the above recording, it just isn't simple enough.
In a newly published eBook designed to bring clarity and simplicity to the discussion and outline the business significance of disruption innovation from financial, growth, investing and risk perspectives, Innovative Disruption's CEO, Paul Paetz, describes the 6 most common misconceptions about market disruption. They include:
- All innovation is disruptive by definition
- Innovation has to be breakthrough to be disruptive
- Disruption only applies to technology
- "Disruptive" is just a marketing adjective companies use to imply that their product is more advanced
- Disruptive innovation is a meaningless buzz phrase
- All innovation is overrated, and disruptive innovation isn’t any better or different
Of course, all these notions are wrong.
Get your copy of 'Disruptive Confusion Unraveled' to learn:
why there are so many misconceptions- the strategic importance to entrepreneurial innovators and investors
- what it means to be disruptive and why the definitions matter
- how to recognize and predict disruption and measure its value
