What is Digital Disruption

Technology is changing at a fast pace, such that a technology invented today, might be overtaken by another organization’s technology.

Digital disruption is a transformation or change caused due to adoption of new digital technologies and business models affecting the monetary worth of the currently existing goods and services in the industry. So, the term ‘disruption’ refers to the emergence of new products, services, and business models disturbing current market and causes the need for re-evaluation.

Digital disruption is the other side of digital opportunity. From well established companies to startups, engage in new technologies in the fight to remove the imperatives, protect entrenched positions, or renovate entire industries and business activities. To explain it with a real-time example: Uber, the taxi app is very quickly disrupting the monopoly that Cabs have enjoyed in the taxi market for many years. Today, it is a most widely used application for daily transports. Before the creation of Apple iPhone each item existed on its own. Today, iPhone is just a phone converged with music player, camera and many intelligent applications and it is leading the market as a most widely used device.

Augmented and Virtual Reality

Augmented reality (AR) surfaces digital information and experiences in the physical world while Virtual Reality (VR) creates a new interactive digital environment. AR has the capacity to radically change the customer’s experience and the way employees perform their work (e.g., assisting in machinery maintenance).  In addition, VR has a very limited impact, but can play a disruptive role in consumer applications.

Kodak Moment

Kodak is the first company to introduce cameras in the market. They have ruled the market for the majority of 20^th century, but unfortunately they have failed to keep up with the changing identities of customers, needs and expectations that came along with the inventions of new technologies.

New digital cameras made their move in the market from just being a piece of electronic equipment to much more friendly and fun gadget. Companies like Sony and Canon swooped into the market by launching their new gadgets that stole the hearts of their consumers. Kodak despite of losing their market share, refused to surrender to the inevitable force of digital disruption and later in 2012, it was declared bankruptcy.

In summary, there are certain things that are helpful to capitalize on the opportunities created by the current wave of digital disruption. There are some industrial sectors that will be affected more quickly than others. Proper research and facts from reputable resources are imperative for staffs to give the relevant information needed to know the potential impacts of a particular technology to business. This also highlights the importance of having a senior leader, or a Chief Digital Officer in an organization, who constantly keeps analyzing what competitors are doing to disrupt their business and how to stay ahead of the disruption caused by technologies and knowing the impacts of digital disruption.