Jill Lepore’s article: “The Disruption Machine” (June 2014) is an analysis on disruptive innovation theory. According to Lepore the theory does little good to predict the outcomes of business endeavors. What the article revealed to me was that in any industry “Everyone is either disrupting or being disrupted”. It is clear that in business there are many more failures than there are success stories.
Lepore is quick to point out that disruptive innovation is not a study of success rather an explanation for why businesses fail. Every day I take advantage of products that at one time or another broke through and completely re-wrote convention. I use email, I send text messages, and I am able to access info
rmation about anything, from anywhere in the world. All of this I take for granted. But what about the ideas that never made it? Ideas that were too early for their time, or did not have enough support, or were beaten out by competitors. Sometimes making things too cheap or too simple takes away value, and therefor disruptive innovation is not necessarily always the best rout.
It is impossible to predict whether or not an idea will succeed. This serves as inspiration to try my own, and perhaps have a chance to leave a mark on the world.
ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN STAUFFER.