The 'Disruption' Buzzword

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This article argues the applications of the buzzword 'disruption' in business management, as quite often the term is misused or misunderstood.

The word ‘disruption’ in the business context was coined by Jean-Marie Dru, in his book titled ‘Disruption: Overturning Conventions and Shaking Up the Marketplace’, published in 1996. The concept ‘Disruption’ in his book was used to describe the uncover of the cultural biases and conventions that shape the standard approaches to business thinking. Dru’s methodology comprised of three steps: Firstly, one needs to identify these conventions, question them and disrupt the ways things are being done by formulating a new ‘unconventional’ strategy.

Due to the business and technological developments since 1996 and perhaps also due to the fact that the term ‘disruption’ is catchy, its application has expanded and presently it conceptualizes with the notions of 'Creative Disruption', 'Disruptive Innovation', 'Disruptive Design', 'Disruptive Marketing' and 'Disruptive Marketing Strategy'.

‘Creative Disruption’ in advertising, is about developing messages that disrupt the flow of traditional marketing and ‘stick’ to people’s mind, increasing brand awareness and customers’ engagement. ‘Creative Disruption’ as general business term is used to signify the change from the old corporate policies and habits to a new improved business model, responding to market change and competition.

‘Disruptive Innovation’ refers to technological innovation as “a powerful means of broadening and developing new markets and providing new functionality, which, in turn, may disrupt existing market linkages” (Yu & Hang, 2010). In two cases a company is considered disruptive: Either the company designs new services or products to match latent demand, or re-shapes the design of an existing service or product to satisfy better existing or new needs of the customer. The enablers of ‘Disruptive Innovation’ are summarized in four perspectives:

(i) the internal perspective (business models, organizational culture, managers, employees etc)

(ii) the external perspective (political and socioeconomical environment;

(iii) the marketing perspective (focus of marketing, customer orientation under disruptive change)

and (v) the technology perspective (find new applications of existing technologies and develop new technologies) (Yu & Hang, 2010).

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the Design! ‘Disruptive Design’ as defined in the article “What is Disruptive Design?”, is “…the act of creating something new — sometimes iterative, sometimes innovative, and in rare cases, revolutionary. Designing is an intentional act of creating a product, service, or system that embodies some degree of change” (Acaroglu, 2016). We do not necessarily agree with the author of the article on the notion that ‘Disruptive design’ is very different from ‘Disruptive Innovation’; we consider ‘Disruptive design’ the exordium and a sub-function of ‘Disruptive Innovation’. After all it is through the design that ‘Disruptive Innovation’ will be realized!

We continue with the definition of ‘Disruptive Marketing’: It appears that the dominant perception of this notion is “turning all the marketing rules upside down, shaking things up and changing the perception not just about your company but about the industry as a whole”. The academic approach considers ‘Disruptive Marketing’ a subset perspective of entrepreneurial marketing.

Subsequently, ‘Disruptive Marketing Strategy' refers to the process by which valuable marketing activities focus on administrative, process, and/or product/service innovations (Hult & Ketchen, 2017). When a company decides to employ a 'Disruptive Marketing Strategy', should ‘contaminate’ all internal functions and departments and ensure that market-based value creation is delivered to the company’s primary stakeholders, by connecting with external actors too.

We conclude that the term ‘disruption’ is overused, and it is unclear whether companies that employ disruptive strategies will make loads of money or will retain their financial health. On the other hand, nobody can argue that the right intervention, combined with the appropriate means and technology ,can result in considerable financial benefits for an organization!

If you feel that the time has come, get in touch with us to explore your ‘disruptive’ potential to expand your business: We are known for contemplating the unthinkable!

References

Acaroglu, L. (2016) “What is Disruptive Design?”. Online article available from medium.com.

Hult, G.T. and Ketchen, D.J. (2017) ‘Disruptive Marketing Strategy’. Academy of Marketing Science, 7, pp. 20-25.

Wiebe, J. (2019) “Driving Market Change: A Multi-Level Perspective on Institutional Disruption and Defense”. Thesis submitted to Smith School of Business, Queen’s University, Canada.

Yu, D. and Hang, C. (2010) "A Reflective Review of Disruptive Innovation Theory". International Journal of Management Reviews, 12, pp. 435–452