Disruptive Innovation: Implementing Technology for Business

Disruptive Innovation: Implementing Technology for Business

Disruption Innovation, Coined by Clayton M. Christensen, a Harvard Business School Profession, refers to the introduction of new technologies, products/services in a good effort to promote the change and gain competitive advantage to redefine the business processes with a view to employ new facets in the business environment.

There are several business domains greatly influenced by Disruptive Innovation – adoption of new technology replacing old ones.  For instance, Automobile Manufacturing to present-day ICT (Information & Communication Technologies) all over the world.  A significant changes are brought about in manufacturing goods/services to selling processes.

• Telecommunications are greatly influenced by the phenomenon: Disruptive Innovation.  Right from Morse key Telegraphy to Smart Phones with advanced Android Operating System(OS).  Internet Telephony like Net2Phone,WhatsApp etc are the best examples of Disruptive Innovation, whereby Technology-driven facilities/features are introduced in service product as value addition.  In other words, the new features and facilities in the Mobile handsets and Communication Systems stupendously influenced the end-users.  The consumers have almost forgotten the old technologies.  No wonder, the present-day users face so much inconvenience in operating/using the older mobile handsets like Nokia-1100 (which does not have smart features at all).  The Technology-driven phase that greatly influenced the business community and end-users.
• Computers have , among all, gone into technological changes.  The Old Mainframes to latest laptops/Tablet PCs are the best examples.  The DOS (Disk Operating System) to Latest MS Windows/Linux are the Technological feats in Computing.  Microprocessors to Integrated Circuits in hardware revolutionized the functionality, appearance of the product, power consumption, size, speed etc.  The MainFrame computers manufacturing was greatly affected and the new products are introduced in the market., pushing down the Mainframe computers business.
• Information Technology(IT): Astonishing changes are brought about in IT with disruptive innovation.  Old software packages like dBaseIII/IV,FoxBase/ FoxPro/Windows WorkGroups/GWBasic etc are now extinct.  The new softwares that are more compatible for web designing are now ruling the IT domain.  Different Business areas like Motion Pictures, Electronic Media, Gaming Industry, Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI) etc are  the quintessence  of disruptive innovation.  The total business operations are dependant on IT platform. Many more services like SaaS(Software as a Service), PaaS(Plotform as a Service), Cloud computing, simulation/Animation software, SoftSynth(Software Synthesizers) in music and so on so forth are the results of new technology.  Its a disruptive innovation.  Today, entire Service Sector (a 3rd Industrial Revolution) is IT-based.  Technology implementation changed the total dimension of business operations.  The Tele-medicine, Distance learning through YouTube etc made the entire world a Global Village. A phenomenal change in life style, comfort, business operations/activities, product/service delivery, online customer-support is the result of disruptive innovation.
• Data Storage:  In olden days, the HD (Hard Drives) were very large and the data storage was limited.  At present, the storage devices capacity is very large in TBs, replacing the old ones like 8”,5 ¼”,3.25” floppy drives, MagTapes(Used in Electronic Telephone Exchanges).  The present innovation is Blue Ray CDs.  This changed the business environment to a great extent.  Manufacturing, Product Innovation, Product positioning, Marketing procedures underwent a great Technological change.
• Photography:  Right from the conventional photography (black & white with negative film processing) to Digital Photography, the disruptive innovation is apparent in Photography Field.  The Motion Pictures, Digital TV channels underwent innovative change in their production and telecast methods.  Even the short-films are also produced with the latest/innovative DigiCams.  It’s a disruptive innovation.
• Transportation: Unbelievable changes are brought about in transportation.  In olden days,  Bullock carts, Horse-carts, Rickshaws etc were widely used for transportation.  Diesel Trains to Electric superfast trains to MagLev (Magnetic Levitation) Trains with enormous speed are the best examples for disruptive innovation.  The advanced technologies influenced the people in general and Transportation Business in particular.  These business domains are more or less competing with the airways to sustain in the Market.  The Disruptive Innovation in business operations have created more avenues for paradigm shift in the Business Models.

The disruptive innovation made the products/services very attractive, cheaper and the business operations – more facile. The cause-effect relation exists with technology-products/services.

Implementing Technology for Business:   Well established companies have their own problems in dealing with disruptive technologies, as they are not prepared to bring about changes in their on-going business processes. But the radical innovations emerge initially in small markets and these small markets will become full-blown competitors for already established business giants.  For example ActFiber(Beam Telecom) became a competitor for BSNL, the giant in ISP(Internet Service Provider).  Ultimately BSNL introduced FTTH(Fiber-To-The_Home) for DSL Internet.  As a consequence, a change in Business Model & service offering is brought about in BSNL.