In recent years disruption has become the battle cry of business. Disruption occurs when an innovation creates a new market and business model that cause established players to fall. Not surprisingly, many have come to view disruption as a synonym for innovation. Scores of articles offer advice on how to succeed as a disruptive innovator and how to defend against a disruptive challenger. Corporate leaders are continually warned that disruption lurks around every corner and that the only way to survive, succeed, and grow is to disrupt their industries or even their own companies.
But is disruption the only way to innovate and grow? Is it even the best way? Recent research done by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne and their analysis over the last three decades suggest that the answer is no. Disruption may be what people talk about, and it’s certainly important and all around us. But researchers found that a single-minded focus on disruption leads companies to overlook another building block of innovation and growth — one that they would argue is more important
That other building block is what W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne call nondisruptive creation, which offers a new way of thinking about what’s possible. It highlights the immense potential for creating new markets where none existed before. This is creation without disruption or destruction. All the demand generated by this kind of innovation is new.
Most companies remain stuck in the mindset that in order to create you must disrupt or destroy. The time has come to fully embrace the idea that you can create without destroying. Nondisruptive creation breaks the existing frame on innovation and growth and allows for a much broader view of how they are generated. It expands the conversation about where real opportunities reside.
For a deeper insight, please, read the most recent article of W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne in MIT Sloan Management Review: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/nondisruptive-creation-rethinking-innovation-and-growth/
