Marc Andreessen: What is disruptive innovation?

through it.

What is disruptive innovation? Disruptive innovation is a term pioneered by Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator's Dilemma, Clay Christensen, hereinafter called CC. According to CC, disruptive innovation refers to a process in which a product or service can be rooted in a simple application of the underlying market, and then ruthlessly penetrate from the bottom up and eventually replace the existing competitor. But Marc Andreessen believes that too much of the emphasis on disruptive innovation is now focused on subversion and destruction--and your understanding is actually wrong. This is the interpretation of his original tweetstorm.

Few concepts in our time are as clay as the Christensen of "subversion" by observers. Here are some of my thoughts:

CC:

Disruptive innovation gives new consumers access to products that used to be available only to wealthy or skilled consumers.

CC:

The subversive provides a different set of product attributes, whose value can only be highlighted in a new market that is far from the mainstream and does not matter to the latter.

A key attribute of disruptive innovation is the introduction of new products to markets that have previously been low in service levels-and often cheaper than existing ones.

This is inherently good for consumers: disruptive innovation is only available if someone buys it-if they buy it, life is better than it was before.

Similarly, only those investors who believe that consumers will buy and think that life will improve will provide financial support for disruptive innovation.

To think that disruptive innovation is sabotage is not a thing to do: it is actually related to creating new products for more people and to the choice.

Of course, in the back, new products tend to become the usurper of services to old customers-because new products are better and cheaper for old customers.

Disruptive innovation reduces inequality by providing low-income customers with things that previously had only rich customers to touch.

Think of all the things that make your life better in your hands, the result of a disruptive innovation?

The printing presses subvert the books made by scribes, and recordings subvert private concerts, washing machines subvert domestic maids.

Rich people always have books to read, music to listen to, clean clothes to wear and so on: and disruptive innovation brings these things to more and more.

Similarly, smartphones under 50 dollars are disruptive innovations in PCs, bringing computing and the Internet to a much larger number of people than they do today.

Support for subversion is to support consumer choice, that is, to support more people to serve, is to support the reduction of inequality.

To oppose subversion is to oppose the choice of consumers, that is, to oppose serving more people, or to reduce inequality.

If we want to make the world a better and more egalitarian place, we need more Christensen-style subversion, and the sooner the better!