Disrupting the norm: how to innovate successfully

INNOVATION is an overused word these days. It seems as though every company is calling itself innovative, citing it as their key focus or competitive advantage. But not all innovations are created equal.

Research has asserted that while continuous (or incremental) innovation is what most big companies practise and successfully implement, it is disruptive innovation that creates the most value for large corporations. Disruptive innovation, first defined by Professor Clayton Christensen, refers to "a product or service (taking) root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market, and then relentlessly (moving) up". It has the power to change the structure of an entire industry and enable the introduction of new, unconventional players to the market. Successes include now-household names like Uber, Spotify, and Airbnb.

Small and lean startups that grow into big market players seem to be the ticket to successful disruption. But what of established MNCs that appreciate its value, that wish to maintain their competitive edge and stay relevant within their market? Big companies tend to have a hard time leveraging, or even surviving, disruptive innovation. This persists even after 20 years of well-researched reasons for failure, and numerous prescriptions to counteract the antibodies within a large corporation.