One of the hallmarks of disruptive technologies is that initially they underperf
ID: 356160 • Letter: O
Question
One of the hallmarks of disruptive technologies is that initially they underperform the current technology on the attributes that matter most to mainstream customers. Can you think of any markets that are emerging today based on attributes or qualities that seemed unimportant to the mainstream markets when they were introduced? What older, mainstream products or companies are threatened?
What are the corporate factors that lead mid-level employees to ignore or kill disruptive technologies? Should well-managed companies change these practices and policies?
Professor Christensen argues that “disruptive technology should be framed as a marketing challenge, not a technological one.”
As a manager, how do you decide when a technology—or idea—needs more development and when it's time to aggressively put it on the market?”
Explanation / Answer
1) The emerging market for online education is one of the classic examples of disruptive technology. Online education sources such as MOOC are threatening the traditional brick and mortar universities and schools.
These online education sources do not offer the levels of interaction and one to one discussion such as that of the traditional means of education. However, these online education portals offer high quality education coupled with better learning tools such as videos and animations. They also help to save the costs for both the education provider and the student. Also, time is saved for both. And students have access to a wide set of qualified and trained educators.
These features of saving time and cost spent on education was seemed to be unimportant when the online education was introduced.
2) Mid level employees are responsible for making the disruptibe technology appear more innovative so as to make it feasible in the market. But the senior management and the higher authorities will have to approve these disruptive technologies before they can be released into the market. However, if the higher management fails to see the future growth power of these technologies then they will tend to reject them.
Also, it is necessary to plan a suitable marketing strategy before the launch of such technologies so as to make it acceptable to the market. Lack of a suitable marketing plan will lead to killing these disruptive technologies.
If the market conditions and the economy are not in a favourable condition at that time, then also a decision to kill these disruptive technologies might be taken.
Well managed companies can form a seperate team responsible for developing the disruptive technologies, performing market feasibility study and to create the marketing plans for it.
3) If prior market research and feasibility studies have been conducted for an idea or a technology and they have shown positive results, then the idea can be launched into the market. However, if the team behind the idea is not confident about the success of the technology/idea then it can be launched into a test market initially before being launched into the actual market.
Also, if any similar technology/idea has seen success in the market previously then it can be aggressively put into the market and it would need more development if the reverse had happened.
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