For eight years I’ve visited leading companies in more than 20 industries around the world that claimed to be in the process of being disrupted. Each time, I’d ask the executives of these incumbent companies the same question: “What is disrupting your business?” No matter who I talked to, I would always get one of two answers: “Technology X is disrupting our business” or “Startup Y is disrupting our business.” But my latest research and analysis reveals flaws in that thinking. It is customers who are driving the disruption.
Disruption Starts with Unhappy Customers, Not Technology
A common misunderstanding of an important idea.
June 06, 2019
Summary.
When executives at incumbent companies are asked: “What is disrupting your business?” they almost always answer with: “Technology X is disrupting our business” or “Startup Y is disrupting our business.” But recent research and analysis reveals flaws in that thinking. What these companies seem to have missed is that the most common and pervasive pattern of disruption is driven by customers. They are the ones behind the decisions to adopt or reject new technologies or new products. When large companies decide to focus on changing customer needs and wants, they end up responding more effectively to digital disruption.