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Ear waves
October 21, 2005
I recently wrote an essay, for Strategy + Business, about disruptive innovations. In addition to the well-known bottom-up model of disruption (documented by Clayton Christensen), I argued that there's a top-down model as well. Bottom-up disruptions initially underperform the existing products in a market (on the purchasing criteria traditionally used by customers), but as their performance improves they move up into the mainstream, displacing the incumbents. Top-down disruptions, in contrast, outperform existing products initially, and then move down into the mainstream as their cost falls.
One of the examples of a potential top-down disruption I pointed to was satellite radio. It strikes me that you could argue that podcasting now represents a potential bottom-up disruption in the same market. Although I'm sure there are other examples in the past, I can't immediately think of another instance when we've so clearly seen an existing market under threat from bottom-up and top-down disruptions simultaneously. I have no idea how the market will ultimately shake out, but the process should be fascinating, and instructive, to watch.
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Comments
Surely the emergence of VoIP (i.e skype) and the prevalence of mobile phones would be a top-down and bottom-up disruption of fixed domestic phone lines?
Posted by: Ed at October 24, 2005 08:05 AM
Interesting again, Nick.
There are aspects of the Linux desktop (remote deployment & configurability of apps, services and settings) and of OpenOffice having to do with access provided to free XML tools that would satisfy Top-Down characterization.
They are Bottom-Up innovations at the same time, because they can shape-shift into me-too feature-sets (like Xandros or Linspire, or OpenOffice2's new-improved just-like-MS Office menu layout) which simply carry fewer frictions to distribution.
Posted by: Sam Hiser at October 24, 2005 10:56 AM
The essay you wrote for strategy+business requires membership to read.
It would be great if you could put up the content of your essay on this website. Or if you could mail a copy to me at rkirana@gmail.com
Thanks
Posted by: kiran r at November 3, 2005 01:36 AM
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Nick's latest book:
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Avatars consume as much electricity as Brazilians
The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock's avatar
Flight of the wingless coffin fly
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The end of corporate computing
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