Characterisits of Disruptive Innovation

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University recently published (Fall of 2012) an article: "Mastering the art of disruptive innovation in journalism" by Clayton M. Christensen, David Skok, and James Allworth.  Christensen had developed a theory of disruptive innovation to explain how businesses grow, become successful, and then falter as startups take away their customers.  This has been demonstrated in multiple industries, and this article applies it to the field of journalism.  

But in this study they propose that disruption comes about because of the job the service or product allows one to do.  They suggest that you need to ask three questions to identify that job:

• What is the job audiences want done?
• What kinds of employees and structure does the company need so it can fulfill that job-to-be-done?
• What is the best way to deliver that information to audiences?

As markets and products are disrupted, they are replaced with markets and products that do the job better.  How does one move from providing a solutions one way to providing the same solution in a better and different way? A way that replaces the old way? A disruptive way?  This article suggest that there are three things one needs to examine: resources (or capabilities), processes, and priorities.  All of these are difficult to change as they are part of the culture of the company.  New ways often need to be done by new people, new processes, and new priorities that are separate from the old ones.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal indicates that magazines add pages dropped 8.2% in 2012 and 32% since 1908.  This illustrates the problem of old media be supplanted by the new media.

One area that they don't address which I believe is critical is the technology trends that cross and merge to make these new ways of doing things possible.