Disruptive Technology

The concept of disruptive technologies, first developed by Harvard Business School Professors Richard S. Rosenbloom, Joseph L. Bower and Clayton M. Christensen, cuts across many industry types and time periods. A disruptive technology is a new product or innovation that sneaks into an established market because industry leaders fail to recognize the threat it poses. Since not all new technologies will be disruptive technologies, they are not always
easy to recognize. However, disruptive technologies that damage an
established company typically have three important characteristics: they initially underperform established products, they present new benefits that enable new applications for new customers, and their performance characteristically improves rapidly. The irony is that companies do not succumb to disruptive technologies because of a lack of foresight, management savvy, or knowledge of the market. Rather, they underestimate the role that the new technology may play in emerging future markets and choose to focus on developing the sustaining technologies that their customers want today. Sailing ship companies, steam locomotive builders, and disk drive manufacturers are just a few of the many industries that have failed to see that apparently marginal and inferior technologies can cost them their entire business.