Categories
Strategy

Disruption: How Companies Lose by Misjudging Substitutes

In the world of competitive strategy, companies are often laser-focused on their direct competitors. They track market share, pricing, and innovation trends, all in an effort to stay one step ahead. But while they’re busy battling familiar rivals, a hidden threat often goes unnoticed: substitutes. Substitutes rarely announce themselves with fanfare. They appear quietly, from […]

Categories
Economics

Cannibalisation Is Not A Useful Choice Of Language

Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote, doesn’t like the word “cannibalisation” because it’s zero sum. It implies that you’re the guy doing the eating or being eaten. He says being in business is not like playing a sport or being in warfare. It’s more like music, it’s more like art. It’s not a zero sum game. […]

Categories
Strategy

Clayton Christensen on Disruptive Innovation

Disruptive innovations often beat successful incumbents CLAYTON Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, is an authority on disruptive innovation, a process by which a product or service initially takes root in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then moves ‘up market’, eventually displacing established competitors. Christensen gave an insightful talk back in 2009 at the ECS National Forum […]