Catching the Wave

Disruptive technology:

Radical innovation: Innovations that proved to be revolutionary or disruptive in its industry. A radical innovation is an innovation thats:

* eliminate activities in the value chain (ex. no warehouse)

* Low-end disruptive innovations (different techs to produce low costs and gradually move up to the market)

* High-end disruptive innovations (top-down tech that outperform existing products when they’re introduced) > Radical innovation

* Design value-chain for mass customization

* Create new markets > blue-ocean; new demand in uncontested market space

Innovation: New product/service that comes from a creative idea that is novel, useful and successfully implemented.

Summary of: “Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave” By: Joseph L. Bower and Clayton M. Christensen

>>> Christensen (1997) proposed the theory of disruptive innovations. It posited that disruption occurred when an initially inferior technology introduced by a new entrant improved to meet the needs of the mass market >>> TO VAGUELY DEFINED. It’s like saying it’s an innovation that disrupts. But does it disrupts?

This Harvard Business Review articles seems to be a short excerpt explaining the concepts presented in Professor Christensen’s book “The Innovator’s Dilemma”. In this article, the same concepts arise, why do large corporations loose to smaller emerging companies, the danger of only listening to your customers, and how to spot a disruptive technology. As in the book, the theory of disruptive technology is explained using a number of case studies, namely the hard disk drive industry. Professor Christensen explains his views on disruptive technology and its importance by taking a look at a fast paced industry with a long history of companies falling and rising to the top spot in the market.

The article first takes a look at what current management and larger corporations do to plan a strategy for their...