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You are viewing ARCHIVED CONTENT released online between 1 April 2010 and 24 August 2018 or content that has been selectively archived and is no longer active. Content in this archive is NOT UPDATED, and links may not function.Extract from interview with Geoffrey Moore
Your theories work with disruptive technologies. Let’s start at the beginning. What is disruption exactly, in your view?
Disruptive innovations should be understood in contrast to sustaining innovations. The latter are backward-compatible improvements to existing offers that can be enjoyed without changing current behavior. Think new car, new recipe, new app, new clothes. By contrast, disruptive innovations are incompatible with current practices and require new infrastructure and a new ecosystem to deliver their value. Think virtual reality devices, electric cars, software as a service, 3-D printers. My life’s work has been about the evolution of markets under the influence of disruptive innovations.
Is it really necessary to be disruptive in this age? What’s at stake for companies that cling to the past?
You don’t have to be a disrupter to succeed in this age. What you cannot afford to be is a disruptee. What this means, in effect, is you do not have to be the first mover, but you do have to keep up. Or as we like to say, you need to catch the next wave before it catches you.