Around 4,000 years ago, in the Steppes of Eurasia, someone had the radical idea to affix spoked wheels to a seat, thereby creating the chariot. It wasn’t an incremental improvement on an earlier design. It wasn’t a new coat of paint on the prevailing mode of transportation (horses). It was a paradigm shift in the entire concept of transportation that capitalized on new technologies (wheels, in this case) to push things far forward.

And this is the way technology has gone in the intervening four millennia: over peaks and valleys. Some innovative thinkers will supercharge an industry; others will follow; over time, that initial innovation will become the dominant technology, eventually viewed as merely satisfactory; another bold-thinking innovator comes along, and the whole process starts anew.

Industries thrive off of these periods of disruption, a fact that’s easy to forget when you’re the one being disrupted. In this era of fast and multitudinous disruption – as technological advancement moves at a breakneck pace – it’s wise to pause, reflect, and consider why industries need disruptive innovation.

Let’s take a closer look.

Important Details About Disruptive Technology

1. Consumer Trust and Interest

Here is the textbook reason disruptive technology benefits industries: it benefits consumers. When Clayton Christensen coined the term “disruptive technology,” he used it to describe market entrants that anticipated consumer desires to gain market traction or competitive advantage over incumbent businesses. This act of anticipation solidifies consumer trust and engages consumer interest.

Take Noble as a fitting recent example. The real estate digital marketplace recently rose to prominence by upturning long-held practices in real estate, delivering real estate consumers the option to vet their agents. (The industry had a reputation for opacity and lack of choice before, which frustrated many consumers).

To quote Nobel CEO Regan McGee, “anytime you bring innovative technology to the table that can make the process easier, it will be viewed as disruptive… A key element for any business venture is the ability to fulfill a need – we do that.”

2. Organic Self-Improvement

Disruption might be painful for incumbents at the moment, but you need to view disruption as a necessary part of a long-term process of improvement.

If an industry fuels itself on sustaining innovation for too long (that is, an innovation that incrementally improves but never reassesses), it will eventually reach a critical point where its offerings fall behind consumer demand.

Therefore, disruption is a necessary component of the “organic self-improvement” process. Consider big data EHRs (electronic health records). The healthcare industry had maxed out its prevailing systems’ ability to track and store health records; it either needed to tread water or embrace technology to improve. Thankfully, many healthcare clinics and forward-thinking companies chose the latter.

3. Field Service Optimization

According to McKinsey, a critical value of disruptive technology is in “optimizing field labor.” Too often, people rush to tout the consumer benefits of disruptive technology (Perhaps justifiably – it’s the easiest benefit to see).

But disruptive innovation can (and does) have profound intra-organizational value. In plain terms: it helps businesses within an industry run smoother.

Recently, businesses applying emerging technologies have leveraged “flexible workforce management,” “dynamic dispatch optimization,” and improved organizational diagnostics and performance management. By capitalizing on things like AI/ML and big data, companies have disrupted the entire traditional system of top-down management.

To summarize, industries need disruptive innovation for three central reasons: Innovation ensures an engaged inflow of consumers, enables the necessary process of meaningful self-improvement, and optimizes intra-organizational processes. Next time someone says, “you don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” maybe it’s time to disagree.

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