Peerside

As an avid tracker of new, and particularly disruptive, technologies I despair every time someone reads the excellent Innovators Dilemma by Clayton Christensen and announces that the pattern he highlights is no longer relevant, the examples are “obviously” old school companies that didn’t “get it” and today and of course “our company” is immune etc.

As you may have guessed I fundamentally believe in, and am a fan of, the disruptive cycle so I was glad to see the recent Wired article The Good Enough Revolution – When Cheap and Simple is Just Fine which highlights a number of modern examples including

• The Pure Digital Flip vs the Digital Video Camera
• Skype vs Traditional Fixed Line Telephone
• MP3 vs High Fidelity Audio
• The Predator vs the Specialized A10 Fighter
• Kaiser Micro Clinics vs Traditional Hospitals

If you believe that every industry at some point will be disrupted by a good enough technology then the challenge is in spotting that technology or solution and working out how you harness ( not necessarily counter ) it.

What in your industry is cheap, doesn’t meet the specialized 20% of features you market and pretty simple to use ? If you can think of examples then they may just be good enough to disrupt your existence if not your entire market.

Worth reading/listening too:

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fall [INNOVATORS DILEMMA]

The Innovator's Dilemma Abridged on 2 CDs in Box

Peerside: The Innovators Dilemma in Summary