Disruptive technologies or digital transformation define the global economy. As some have said, it’s “disrupt or be disrupted.” Some species of sharks must keep swimming or they die. A company at rest is a company falling behind the competition. As a rule, the word “disruption” carries unfavorable impressions for people. A downed power line disrupts our electricity, a loud neighbor disrupts our sleep, sunspots disrupt communication, a derailed train disrupts commuter service. Disruption is not always a welcome word.
But not all forms of disruption are harmful! Disruptive technologies can potentially be a game-changer in our growing high-tech world creating digital transformation. And even if it causes some short-term pain, it’s well worth it in the long run.
What is disruptive technologies?
Harvard Business School professor and business consultant, Clayton Christensen, coined the term “disruptive innovation” in the magazine Harvard Business Review back in 1995.
Disruptive technologies refers to a change in expectations and behaviors caused by, or expressed through, digital transformation through channels, or assets, that radically alters the culture, market, industry, or process.
Disruptive technologies describes the change that happens when new growth strategies with digital transformation, services, capabilities, and business models affect and change the organizational agility and value of the industry’s existing services and goods. These new elements change or disrupt the status quo, giving business the competitive advantage to reevaluate the current market regarding talent acquisition and growth strategies.
History has many examples of superior technology giving rise to innovation culture supplanting the status quo. The automobile replaced the horse and buggy, electric lights replaced candles and oil lamps, mobile phones ended landline superiority, and video killed the radio star.
The bottom line, disruptive technologies means change, and that can be good and bad. However, disruptive technologies is a unique animal. Let’s look at the elements of disruptive technologies and get a better sense of its uniqueness.
Why is disruptive technologies a good thing?
Disruptive technologies, though it has the potential of being a challenging and painful process, offers innovation culture for leadership development.
Customer satisfaction increases with innovation
Thanks to mass media, itself a beneficiary of digital transformation, customers today are savvier, more informed, and more discerning. Disruptive technologies increases organizational agility to make them rise to the challenge of today’s consumers and getting competitive advantage by staying ahead of the tech curve and incorporating the latest changes faster. Disruptive technologies makes marketing more manageable, resulting in a healthier company overall.
It helps in leadership development and company growth
Disruptive technologies brings about radical change, pulling companies out of their comfort zone and moving them forward. It evolves and improves the workplace. Disruptive technologies brings innovations and new technology to the workplace.
Elements of disruptive technologies
Disruptive technologies breaks down into four distinct elements, each with the potential to change businesses’ ways.
Technology: Includes invention, usage, design, etc.
Business: Involves marketing, development, delivery pricing, etc.
Industry: Has customers, methods, processes, standards, etc.
Society: Encompasses movements, culture, habits, and so on.
Companies that want to grow and succeed in the face of disruptive technologies must adopt the following five elements:
- Develop a consistent, company-wide digital culture. The company must move as one, embracing new technology. This adoption is essential for companies that haven’t “gone digital” yet and includes training employees in new digital-based skills.
- Create new customer experiences and produce unique outcomes. Disruptive technologies bring new ways of serving customers and exciting new results.
- Shift from time-based decisions to data-driven decisions. Timeliness is important, but there’s little benefit in being the first company in the pack to make an ill-informed, destructive decision. There’s tons of valuable, actionable data out there, thanks to processes relating to disruptive technologies. Innovative companies will take advantage of this.
- Incorporate new technology and business models into existing services and products. Companies that want to stay ahead of the pack and increase their market share will embrace the new and put away the old. Or, at least, modify the old with better procedures and tech.
- Work with partners to create and innovate new procedures and policies. Teamwork is key. Companies should take advantage of their existing partnerships’ experiences and skills to collaborate on better business practices. Everyone wins; your company, your partners, and your customers.
Examples of disruptive technologies
We touched upon a few examples of disruption earlier on, but let’s look at five past examples of disruption as they apply to the digital world.
- Video Streaming/Web-Based Video
- Smartphones
- Online References and Encyclopedia
- Personal Computers and Hand-Held Devices
Five potentially disruptive technologies of 2023
We’ve listed five technologies that have disrupted industries in the past.
Online Learning
Crises breed innovation, and pandemic did just that. Online education offers students a cheaper, more convenient way of getting a degree or certification, circumventing the expensive university system.
3D Printing
It looks like something out of a science fiction movie or TV show, but it’s here right now and gaining traction. 3D printers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and 2023 could be the year we see their stock rise.
Cryptocurrency
Many of us have heard talk of Bitcoin and blockchain technology, but it hasn’t yet dominated everyday commerce. Note the use of the word “yet.” Digital wallets could potentially disrupt traditional banking and even online payment services.
P2P Commerce
P2P commerce involves two individuals interacting directly without a go-between, selling and buying goods and services to each other. Although P2P isn’t anywhere close to crippling the hotel and hospitality industry yet, there are ominous warnings.
Car sharing
While we will always need taxis, companies such as ZipCar, Lyft, and Uber have thrown the cab industry for a loop. If tech companies ever get all of the kinks out of driverless car technology, it will only add to the overall disruptive effect.
