If the push to innovate wasn’t stressful enough, there’s a new sheriff in town, and it goes by the name disruptive innovation. The explicit goal of disruptive innovation is to unravel your industry and undo everything that’s made you successful.
Disruptive innovation is different from “ordinary” innovation. The goal of plain vanilla innovation is to seek radical improvement in functionality—doing a whole lot more of what worked and piling on to the tried-and-true value proposition. Disruptive innovation goes after a radical reduction in functionality—doing a whole lot less of what worked to deliver a new value proposition. Disruptive innovation actively devalues the very thing responsible for your success; it demands you obsolete what worked. And that’s the rub.