Disruption is no longer a once-in-a-career problem to be dealt with. It's a constant cycle. Technology is increasingly creating the tools your competitors - incumbents and entrepreneurs alike - are using to build new digital products and services that target and release latent demand and serve unmet needs. The authors, senior leaders at Accenture, call that potential revenue 'trapped value' - and they argue that if you don't get to it before others, you may find not just your future growth disrupted, but your current business as well.
Accelerating technological improvements have changed the speed with which new innovations penetrate markets. Graphed over time, the market adoption of innovations now resembles a dramatic shark fin--a dangerously deformed version of the classic bell-curve model of diffusion. Two forces have compressed the bell curve: near-instant market saturation by new products and the rapid obsolescence of digital components. As a result, many companies struggle to find new sources of revenue after a big-bang success. The authors describe seven mistakes that make enterprises--incumbent businesses as well as start-ups--highly vulnerable to such flameouts: (1) The company is too lean. (2) Its capital structure is built to fail. (3) It has lost its founder. (4) It's overserving investors. (5) It "won the lottery" by getting lucky with a big-bang disrupter. (6) It's held captive by regulators. (7) It anticipates customers who don't exist. They offer some tactics for ensuring that your business is a second-act survivor: Abandon the successful product before it runs out of steam. Build a platform, not a product. Turn your initial product into a service. Invest in or acquire nascent disrupters.
In recent years a new--disquieting--form of disruptive innovation has emerged. It doesn't follow Clayton Christensen's classic model, entering the market as a cheap substitute to a high-end product and then gradually increasing in quality and moving up the customer chain. Instead, the innovation beats incumbents on both price and quality right from the start and quickly sweeps through every customer segment. This kind of "big bang" disruption can devastate entire product lines virtually overnight. Look at the effect that free navigation apps, preloaded on smartphones, had on the market for devices made by TomTom, Garmin, and Magellan. Big-bang disruptions often come out of the blue from people who aren't your traditional competitors. Frequently, they're developed by inventors who are just doing low-cost experiments with existing technologies to see what new products they can dream up. Once launched, these innovations don't adhere to conventional strategic paths or normal patterns of market adoption. That makes them incredibly hard to combat. The authors, who've spent 15 years studying marketplace disruptions, offer some strategic principles to help businesses survive big bangs: Be on the watch for failed experiments that could signal that a big bang is brewing in your industry. Find ways to slow the disruptive innovation down and to leverage your surviving assets in another business. These assets will usually be intangible; other kinds of assets generally lose value quickly after a big bang and must be shed quickly. Diversifying into new kinds of business will protect your company. Though technology- and information-intensive firms are most vulnerable to big bangs, mature industries face this threat, too. Credit cards, automobiles, and education, for instance, are all experiencing early warning signs. But in every industry, big-bang disruption will be keeping executives in a cold sweat for a long time to come.
The Laws of Disruption, written by Larry Downes, a partner with the Bell-Mason Group, is an 12-chapter book published by Basic Books/Perseus Books Group. Composed of four sections, the book explores a simple but unavoidable principle of modern life: though technology changes exponentially, social, economic, and legal systems change incrementally. This disparity in change, Downes argues, will inevitably instigate conflicts between systems rooted in the past and the current and future generations who are dramatically rewriting the rules of both business and social interaction. Downes suggests nine emerging principles that are shaping a new legal code - the laws of disruption - that will close the gap between institutions of the past and those of the future. Chapter 7 introduces the fifth of the nine laws of disruption. Globalization has been turbocharged by the Internet. But merchants and consumers are learning to their peril that the easier it is to interact across borders, the more likely it is that provincial and often pointless local laws will rear up to interfere with trade. Sometimes, conflicting laws and uneven enforcement can come close to forcing a hard stop. The author argues that we need a single uniform law of digital commerce - and further, that the building blocks for writing one are in place.
The Laws of Disruption, written by Larry Downes, a partner with the Bell-Mason Group, is an 12-chapter book published by Basic Books/Perseus Books Group. Composed of four sections, the book explores a simple but unavoidable principle of modern life: though technology changes exponentially, social, economic, and legal systems change incrementally. This disparity in change, Downes argues, will inevitably instigate conflicts between systems rooted in the past and the current and future generations who are dramatically rewriting the rules of both business and social interaction. Downes suggests nine emerging principles that are shaping a new legal code - the laws of disruption - that will close the gap between institutions of the past and those of the future. In the twelfth and final chapter, the author states, "Our new laws won't look much like the old ones. Treaties, statutes, regulations, and judicial opinions are giving way to more organic forms. The Declaration of Independence of digital life has already been written. Its Constitution, made up of wikis, terms of service agreements, privacy policies, and software code itself, is now being drafted." In his view, lawmakers have disappointed us, while regulatory agencies have behaved even worse. He offers a possible source of hope, the old-fashioned virtue of understanding your customers: "As businesses shift the focus of their attention from wooing regulators to engaging customers, innovators will find they have a lot to learn about working with the latter as equal partners."
The Laws of Disruption, written by Larry Downes, a partner with the Bell-Mason Group, is an 12-chapter book published by Basic Books/Perseus Books Group. Composed of four sections, the book explores a simple but unavoidable principle of modern life: though technology changes exponentially, social, economic, and legal systems change incrementally. This disparity in change, Downes argues, will inevitably instigate conflicts between systems rooted in the past and the current and future generations who are dramatically rewriting the rules of both business and social interaction. Downes suggests nine emerging principles that are shaping a new legal code - the laws of disruption - that will close the gap between institutions of the past and those of the future. Chapter 11 discusses the ninth and final law of disruption: software. Different software models are explained, and the open source business model is explored at length. The author traces the movement of software from physical media to web-based usage, or "Software as a Service" (SaaS), and discusses the implications of this shift.
The Laws of Disruption, written by Larry Downes, a partner with the Bell-Mason Group, is an 12-chapter book published by Basic Books/Perseus Books Group. Composed of four sections, the book explores a simple but unavoidable principle of modern life: though technology changes exponentially, social, economic, and legal systems change incrementally. This disparity in change, Downes argues, will inevitably instigate conflicts between systems rooted in the past and the current and future generations who are dramatically rewriting the rules of both business and social interaction. Downes suggests nine emerging principles that are shaping a new legal code - the laws of disruption - that will close the gap between institutions of the past and those of the future. Chapter 10 discusses the eighth of the nine laws of disruption: patent. The author explores the history of patent protection for computers and software, notably its failures and hindrances. He advocates the development of a new, more limited patent that would protect inventors without stifling competition.
The Laws of Disruption, written by Larry Downes, a partner with the Bell-Mason Group, is an 12-chapter book published by Basic Books/Perseus Books Group. Composed of four sections, the book explores a simple but unavoidable principle of modern life: though technology changes exponentially, social, economic, and legal systems change incrementally. This disparity in change, Downes argues, will inevitably instigate conflicts between systems rooted in the past and the current and future generations who are dramatically rewriting the rules of both business and social interaction. Downes suggests nine emerging principles that are shaping a new legal code - the laws of disruption - that will close the gap between institutions of the past and those of the future. Chapter 9 discusses the seventh of the nine laws of disruption: copyright. This chapter explores the ongoing and escalating conflict between producers attempting to protect their content and digital consumers who are routinely accused of copyright abuse. The history of copyright is discussed, as are the steps being taken on one side to enhance digital copyrights and, on the other, to repeal them. The author proposes a simple but controversial solution to the digital copyright dilemma and theorizes about the future of intellectual property.
The Laws of Disruption, written by Larry Downes, a partner with the Bell-Mason Group, is an 12-chapter book published by Basic Books/Perseus Books Group. Composed of four sections, the book explores a simple but unavoidable principle of modern life: though technology changes exponentially, social, economic, and legal systems change incrementally. This disparity in change, Downes argues, will inevitably instigate conflicts between systems rooted in the past and the current and future generations who are dramatically rewriting the rules of both business and social interaction. Downes suggests nine emerging principles that are shaping a new legal code - the laws of disruption - that will close the gap between institutions of the past and those of the future. Chapter 8 discusses the sixth of the nine laws of disruption: crime. The recent increase of digital crime is analyzed, as are the complications encountered by traditional law enforcement agencies attempting to prevent it.
The Laws of Disruption, written by Larry Downes, a partner with the Bell-Mason Group, is a 12-chapter book published by Basic Books/Perseus Books Group. Composed of four sections, the book explores a simple but unavoidable principle of modern life: though technology changes exponentially, social, economic, and legal systems change incrementally. This disparity in change, Downes argues, will inevitably instigate conflicts between systems rooted in the past and the current and future generations who are dramatically rewriting the rules of both business and social interaction. Downes suggests nine emerging principles that are shaping a new legal code - the laws of disruption - that will close the gap between institutions of the past and those of the future. Chapter 6 discusses the fourth of the nine laws of disruption: infrastructure. The author explores the government's role in the production, implementation, and ultimately, protection of the digital infrastructure. Regulatory measures and their often adverse effects are also discussed.
The Laws of Disruption, written by Larry Downes, a partner with the Bell-Mason Group, is a 12-chapter book published by Basic Books/Perseus Books Group. Composed of four sections, the book explores a simple but unavoidable principle of modern life: though technology changes exponentially, social, economic, and legal systems change incrementally. This disparity in change, Downes argues, will inevitably instigate conflicts between systems rooted in the past and the current and future generations who are dramatically rewriting the rules of both business and social interaction. Downes suggests nine emerging principles that are shaping a new legal code - the laws of disruption - that will close the gap between institutions of the past and those of the future. Chapter 5 discusses the third of the nine laws of disruption: human rights. The author argues that individual rights in digital life eroded badly during the war on terror of the early 2000's, and that "the only protection most of us are left with is the sheer volume of information and the lack of funding for governments to sift through all of it." He goes on to propose the establishment of several principles of digital civil liberties, and then the writing of software to enforce them.
The Laws of Disruption, written by Larry Downes, a partner with the Bell-Mason Group, is a 12-chapter book published by Basic Books/Perseus Books Group. Composed of four sections, the book explores a simple but unavoidable principle of modern life: though technology changes exponentially, social, economic, and legal systems change incrementally. This disparity in change, Downes argues, will inevitably instigate conflicts between systems rooted in the past and the current and future generations who are dramatically rewriting the rules of both business and social interaction. Downes suggests nine emerging principles that are shaping a new legal code - the laws of disruption - that will close the gap between institutions of the past and those of the future. Chapter 4 discusses the second of the nine laws of disruption: personal information. This chapter proposes a working definition for privacy in the digital era. The author discusses the economic value of privacy to both society and individuals. He proposes a market-based model for addressing privacy issues such as those recently surfaced through social networking sites.
The Laws of Disruption, written by Larry Downes, a partner with the Bell-Mason Group, is a 12-chapter book published by Basic Books/Perseus Books Group. Composed of four sections, the book explores a simple but unavoidable principle of modern life: though technology changes exponentially, social, economic, and legal systems change incrementally. This disparity in change, Downes argues, will inevitably instigate conflicts between systems rooted in the past and the current and future generations who are dramatically rewriting the rules of both business and social interaction. Downes suggests nine emerging principles that are shaping a new legal code - the laws of disruption - that will close the gap between institutions of the past and those of the future. Chapter 3 introduces the first of the nine laws of disruption: convergence. As wireless access and cheap mobile computing become ubiquitous, the world of the physical and the world of the digital are merging. On the border, difficult problems of law appear. Where do our digital activities take place? What law applies? Are judges, legislators, and law enforcement officers competent to enforce behavioral standards on our world? The author contends that the best and most effective code for the intersection of industrial and information economies is a market-based solution, not a governmental imposition of antiquated rules.
The Laws of Disruption, written by Larry Downes, a partner with the Bell-Mason Group, is a 12-chapter book published by Basic Books/Perseus Books Group. Compossed of four sections, the book explores a simple but unavoidable principle of modern life: though technology changes exponentially, social, economic, and legal systems change incrementally. This disparity in change, Downes argues, will inevitably instigate conflicts between social, economic, political, and legal systems rooted in the past and the current and future generations who are dramatically rewriting the rules of both business and social interaction. Downes suggests nine emerging principles that are shaping a new legal code - the laws of disruption - that will close the gap between institutions of the past and those of the future. Chapter 2 explores the opportunities and risks of living in the digital era by analyzing the economic behavior of information. The conflict between non-rivalrous information and a property rights system designed around the scarcity of manufactured (rivalrous) goods is discussed.
The Laws of Disruption, written by Larry Downes, a partner with the Bell-Mason Group, is a 12-chapter book published by Basic Books/Perseus Books Group. Compossed of four sections, the book explores a simple but unavoidable principle of modern life: though technology changes exponentially, social, economic, and legal systems change incrementally. This disparity in change, Downes argues, will inevitably instigate conflicts between social, economic, political, and legal systems rooted in the past and the current and future generations who are dramatically rewriting the rules of both business and social interaction. Downes suggests nine emerging principles that are shaping a new legal code - the laws of disruption - that will close the gap between institutions of the past and those of the future. Chapter 1 introduces the Law of Disruption and its key drivers, Moore's Law and Metcalfe's Law. Downes argues that these laws help to reveal the foundation for a new human existence - the digital life. The escalating conflict between business leaders, governments, and consumers over intellectual property and information is also discussed.