Provide feedback on 3 peers: 40-50 word count.
Alfred
Today at 12:50 PM CDT
I took a different spin looking into disruptive innovation examples. I chose two companies who are disruptively innovating by combining technology with a mission to create social impact. The first company is a non-profit whose origins began with a project in Haiti building homes in the underserved population there. That project jetted them into thinking how technology can help tackle homelessness. This lead to the utilization of 3D Printed Homes and partnering with company to support this type of solution.
With the intro down, I present New Story, a disruptive non-profit whose mission is “tackling one of the world’s biggest problems: homelessness” and ICON, a company whose “mission is to re-imagine the approach to homebuilding and construction to make affordable, dignified housing available to everyone throughout the world,” two companies disrupting philanthropy and home building and working together to combine the two.
The goals align and fit the definition as explained by Christensen, et al. (2015) in two ways. The areas that are being targeted for homelessness are low-end and incorporate new markets. New Story and ICON industry disruption will be a time intensive process and they both have business models different from the incumbents in their respective industries.
Ajibike
Today at 10:57 AM CDT
While the true definition of disruptive innovation theory may be questionable, I believe that Afterpay has conquered a new market for the concept of layaway for all. Not only does it not require a credit check like most financing/installment based options. I would characterize it as disruptive because the market previously for these options were only available to those who had a good level of creditworthiness, as well as only on a one time basis offered by different creditors depending on the store. Afterpay has tapped into an all-access market, that is available in real-time to the end user, whereas stores would check your credit and apply on your behalf. Not only is it just end user enabled, but you can use for simple every day purchases versus furniture and your typical layaway installment purchase.
While it is not an unlimited credit line, they have revolutionized shopping and purchases forever and gave people who typically don’t have these options, the ability to manage their finances better and shop at their discretion.
K – I didn’t have knowledge of the concept of disruptive innovation
W – More examples of disruptive innovation where the incumbent business evolved due to the competition
L – Learned that it’s not simply about entering the market and doing something different, but the method in which they serve their markets that has not been done at all.
Christopher
Today at 12:54 PM CDT
Know:
I did not know what disruptive innovation was before reading this article. However, if I had to guess before reading, I would have thought it meant that companies on the rise must have done something to impair their ability to produce any goods or services they provide.
Learned:
I put together an example of a company that is a notable example of disruptive innovation, DoorDash. The company came into the online food delivery business gradually, with the owners, college students, being the only ones who were delivering to people. Still, they grew to hire people to make food deliveries through their platform. At the time, the biggest competitor was UberEats and Postmates, but they beat out all their competitors in sales.
Want:
Getting into an industry where a company already dominates isn’t easy. I want to know about the mindset of those trying to start, such as the fears associated with failing and how they overcome it.
Noa
Yesterday at 7:37 PM CDT
One example to a disruptive innovation is the Apple’s iPhone. This was a sustain innovation in the smartphone market. It became another access point to the internet in addition to laptops which were the primary internet access before that. It was achieved by product improvement and the introduction of a new business model. iPhone created a new market to access the internet and was able to challenge the laptops, by connecting application developers with phone users.
Disruptive innovation refers to innovations and technologies that make expensive or sophisticated products and services accessible and more affordable to a broader market. This transformation disrupts the market by displacing long-standing, established competitors. Sustaining innovation is the process of innovating to improving products and services for existing customers.
Knew- I didn’t know the term “Disruptive innovation” but I did know that some smaller companies with fewer resources moved upmarket and challenges larger established businesses.
Learned- I learned about the different examples of the companies that are a disruptive innovations compare to the ones that aren’t like “Uber”.
Want to know- more examples of companies in order to understand how to identify a disruptive innovation.
Nebil
Today at 10:01 AM CDT
Working in the insurance industry, the first company that came to thought after reading Christensen et al (2015) was Lemonade insurance company. Lemonade offers renters, pet insurance, homeowners and condo insurance and it mainly targets customers who are millennials, techy savvy and are less attracted to high costly insurance companies. The business model of Lemonade insurance is to eliminate the conflict between insurers and customers by removing the interest the customers pays to the insurer, and instead the insurer collects a percentage/flat fee of the premium while using reinsurance to limit losses from high claims. At the end of the year, they give the remainder of underwriting profits to charites that the customers choose. The also replaced brokers and all paperwork with bots and algorithms.
What I learned from reading the articles, is not all innovative companies are classified as disruptive. I always thought that Uber was considered a disruptive company, however after reading the articles I was able to identify that Uber was not considered disruptive because Ubers innovations did not originate in low end or new market foot holds.
Kazi
Today at 12:03 PM CDT
I work in the 3D-Printing industry and a new technology that I consider a disruptive technology is Carbon-3D. Generally, resin based 3D-Printers were expensive and were mostly used to create prototyping parts which did not necessarily serve a functional purpose. Carbon-3D introduced a relatively low cost 3D-Printer (low cost compared to other commercial 3D-Printers) and engineered their resin materials to perform like everyday injection molded materials.
K- Know – I knew disruptive technologies tend to take over existing established market segments and dilute market shares from major players of their respective industry domain.
L- Learn – According to the article, when a major player in the industry wishes to be disruptive, they treat projects as separate units and primary focus on growth. They focus on providing low cost alternatives to continue to be relevant in the market.
W- Want – I want to know the academic study, theory or philosophy that enables corporations to think of elements that could be disruptive. Apple with iPod and Phone = iPhone. How do we know it will work if such a product did not exist before? What steps are taken to ensure R&D costs are justified? Is it pure marketing using focus groups, surveys, etc?
Bum-jin Kim
Today at 6:59 AM CDT
While there are many good examples of disruptive cases in the market, I would like to raise a slight opposite topic here, that is how can incumbents defend themselves from disruptive innovation?
As this week’s reading pointed out, successful disruptive innovation starts from out of sight areas of incumbents and by the time that incumbents realize that it is being major threat, it is too late for incumbents to react it properly, just as Netflix vs. Blockbuster case.
In addition, there is special disruptive case where disruptor enters major fields of incumbents by sacrificing penetration cost. Usually, these disruptors can afford this kind of sacrifice by cross funding from other business units in same company.
Either cases lead incumbents into dilemma where they have to continue competing in existing market, while they have to build another strategy to fight with disruptors. Based on my experience, the incumbents eventually face profit loss from expanding its competition, with maintaining current position, rather than growth.
What then could be choices for these incumbents to continue in this situation?