Nondisruptive creation: An alternative to innovation and growth?

WE’VE all heard the refrain: Disrupt this, disrupt that. Disrupt – or die.

Unsurprisingly, many business leaders have come to view “disruption” as a near-synonym for “innovation”, with many companies having achieved their success by disrupting traditional sectors. For instance, Uber, Lyft and Grab were founded as challengers to the taxi industry, just as E-ZPass effectively disrupted the tollbooth industry and Netflix clobbered the video-rental market.

From the tech hubs of Silicon Valley and Shenzhen to the financial centres of New York and Tokyo, disruption is all around us. But is upending traditional industries the only way for organisations to innovate and grow? And is it necessarily the best approach? As we lay out in our new book, Beyond Disruption, the answer is no.