Big-Bang Disruption

Idea in Brief

Disruptive technological innovations have traditionally started out cheap and simple, gradually improving in quality until they challenged incumbents.

New digital platforms such as the smartphone, however, are enabling innovations that offer customers both a better experience and a much lower price, right out of the gate. (Think of free mobile apps’ superiority to dedicated GPS devices.)

These “big-bang” disruptions are often unplanned and unintentional. They do not follow conventional strategic paths or normal patterns of market adoption.

To survive them, incumbents need to develop new tools to detect radical change in the offing, new strategies to slow down disrupters, new ways to leverage existing assets in other markets, ...