Make a list of recent disruptive innovations. List firms that dominated the old regime and firms that capitalized after disruption. Are any of the dominant firms from the previous era the same as those in the post-disruptive era? For those firms that failed to make the transition, why do you think they failed?
There can be a lengthy debate and what is considered disruptive and what is not. However, for this question, let us take into consideration the changes we have noticed in our era (past 20-30 years or so) and also the impacts they have made. Obviously we cannot name all disruptions and thus we will choose three notable ones. The disruptive technologies that we will discuss are
Before video streaming firms like Blockbuster was really popular. Along with it there were other companies that had strong affiliation with the movie studios and were popular in selling their CDs, DVDs, and Blue-ray discs. Some of the companies that we can think of are Blockbuster, and Sony in the movie selling business. On the other hand companies like HP, and Moser Baer were popular in selling their mediums. However, after the video streaming services like Hulu, Netflix, HooQ, etc. became popular nowadays we hardly get to see these companies’ products in terms of movies, tv shows, etc. This is why video streaming has been a disruptive innovation.
Smartphone revolution is comparatively familiar by all of us. We have seen phones that had keypads to phones that now have touchscreens. In the course of time, the phones have packed more and more features into them. As a result we have seen some of the industries undergoes massive change. In cellphone technology, once we had dominant companies like Nokia, Ericsson, Siemens, etc. However nowadays we do not see them as popular companies in Smartphone technology. We have also seen companies like Kodak, Fuji, Leica, etc. fade away. This is why smartphone has been a disruptive platform for several industries.
Social media is another disruptive technology and platform for many industries. While it has had its share of criticism, the platform has given rise to various business models, ventures, change of M.O. by companies, and more. For example, it has influence marketing teams around the world and gave rise to a new concept of social media marketing. It has also given platform for social causes, fundraising, communication, and fake news. The companies that were relevant prior to social media has not become irrelevant because of it. But they surely have changed their approach after popularity of social media.
Some of the companies that we named, still exist today. However, they have suffered greatly as new age companies have taken over the position of market leader. Some of the reasons for this is that the older dominant companies were very large at the onset of disruption. However, when the change in the market was ushered, they were not agile enough to change with it. This caused them to either become a follower or get wiped out completely. Lack of agility can be considered as the key reason why these companies have lost some of their importance and position in the market.
Make a list of recent disruptive innovations. List firms that dominated the old regime and firms...