[Disruption has] become an all-purpose technology industry buzzword, drained of meaning. A “synergy” for our time.The complaining writer defines the proper use of the term, at least from his point of view [bold added]:
What makes disruptive innovations so deadly is they’re not better than your product. They’re worse. Anyone who needed a mainframe at the dawn of the personal computer era would find a PC to be an incredibly lame and underpowered alternative. So you ignore the alternative in favor of meeting the needs of your customers and perfecting your product. But the disruptive product keeps iterating and improving and selling to people who didn’t need mainframe computers but who do have use for a cheap, flexible PC. Soon enough, the PC market has swamped the mainframe market and your firm is on its last legs. You’ve fallen victim to the innovator’s dilemma: Your own success in the mainframe market blinded you to the real trajectory in the industry.Well, at least I used the term properly. The output of 3D printing is far below the detail and quality of a machine shop, but the speed and low cost make the tradeoff compelling to many would-be Edisons. In fields as diverse as photography, music, fashion, and education traditional methods may still be best at the very top, but for the vast majority of uses digitization indeed proved to be disruptive.
Speaking of disruption and the old ways, Happy May Day, everyone. © 2013 Stephen Yuen
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