Disruptive Innovation: Making New Rules for Tomorrow

In comparison to these advances, disruptive innovations and inventions enable companies to create new markets or significantly alter existing ones. They are the rule breakers and the game changers that rivals fear and laggards dread. They make kings of newcomers and paupers of hangers on. They do it by introducing capabilities and functionality never before available and by solving problems that previously went unanswered. Disruptive innovations change where or how value is created and alter the fundamentals of business. When they hit, they have a profound impact on any industry they touch.

Consider the impact of the iPod and iTunes on the entire music industry. Apple’s technology drove many consumers to stop buying CDs and instead embrace the disruptive innovation that replaced them: digitized music sold as unglamorous, often inferior-sounding, but infinitely more convenient MP3 files.