Disruptive Innovation Is Rare

The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes but in seeing with new eyes ~Marcel Proust

I’ve spent the past 19 years learning about, and trying to understand, what special attributes make an innovation become truly “disruptive”. 

Sadly, I’ve moved on.

In full disclosure, I was getting too pedantic for my own good about the precise definition of "disruptive innovation".

The only thing my stubbornness encouraged was a discussion not unlike the one you'd have with that rare person who still holds fast to geocentrism; in other words, a colossal waste of time.

So, I've reoriented my mental map when acting as a de facto product marketer towards studying the process of how to introduce less than esoteric technological innovations to market on behalf of promising startups or emerging companies.

I grudgingly came to the conclusion that "disruptive innovations" are purple unicorns.

So, as an occasional sales enablement consultant, I would probably have very little work if I stubbornly devoted my marketing consultations strictly to advancing the cause of startups that think they have THE "disruptive innovation".

I conceded that I'm better off just figuring out how to help people cross chasms, and teach inquisitive minds about Everett Rogers (i.e. Diffusion of Innovations) and Eric von Hippel ("lead user" theory).

Yep, I can still be annoyingly pedantic when it comes to marketing. Mea culpa!

Anyway, since Clay Christensen coined the term “disruptive innovation” in 1995 we’ve seen the occasional truly disruptive innovation – e.g. Airbnb and probably Amazon - and a spate of pretenders. Whether you agree or not, Uber and Tesla are NOT disruptive innovations despite what casual readers of the principles of disruptive technology want you to believe.

Neither are Oakley sunglasses, despite anointing themselves “disruptive by design”.

I believe that disruptive innovations have their genesis in the minds and perseverance of iconoclasts. I read a book years ago entitled “Iconoclast” by a neuroscientist named Gregory Berns. He states that the definition of an iconoclast is “one who does something that others say can’t be done”. The big reveal in all this is that iconoclasts are indeed wired differently, and it can be proven through fMRI; that is, measuring brain activity through blood flow. 

According to Berns the hard wired circuitry (not just “traits”) in three basic physiologic functions differ in the brains of iconoclasts – perception, fear response, and social intelligence. To further summarize Berns, he states that the perceptual system in iconoclasts is the lynchpin that allows iconoclasts to “see” things differently than non-iconoclasts – in a fundamental neural pathway sort of way. Furthermore, iconoclasts are able to overcome their fear of failure unlike most of us, and they have the social intelligence to sell their ideas to others. 

Whether you agree with Berns or not, or are an adherent of Cartesian dualism, is a subject for deeper conversation. For today’s soliloquy, let’s all agree that iconoclasts have each of these three advanced brain functions in spades. Don’t be jealous if YOU don’t. They’re the ones who create lightbulbs and get you safely to your destination when you're lost in traffic.

They’re not afraid of being ridiculed by their peers nor do they fear professional ostracism. They’re not afraid of failure, and look at failure as just the process of getting one step closer to an “aha” moment. They’re also not typically good at coloring within the lines, and generally have a low regard for professional courtesy. More importantly, the number of people who have mastered these three brain functions is extremely low. Although I have no scientific certainty to say this, I would think that Steve Jobs fell into this category. Then again, according to Walter Isaacson, the author of his biography, you may rightly conclude that Jobs’ social intelligence didn’t make it all the way into his management style.

In 2011 I went to work for a startup in Canada that intrigued me with the description of themselves as having “game changing hardware”. BTW, that’s code for disruptive innovation. This company has a patented innovation for optical spectrographs – i.e. spectrograph with anamorphic beam expansion for higher spectral resolution and throughput. Frankly, it is a perfect example of how iconoclasts just think differently than you and I. Spectroscopes have been around for a long time (the first spectroscope was developed in 1814) so you would think that there could be nothing new under the sun as it pertains to these instruments.

Nay, nay!

This Canada based company was founded by, and employs a number of people, that I would call iconoclasts. The innovation that this start up created effectively eliminates the need to have a slit in a spectrometer; a fundamental element since day one. Many have tried to eliminate this fundamental physical element to improve throughput without sacrificing spectral resolution. They have trumpeted their claims with great fanfare. All of these previous attempts have been derided by the non-iconoclasts amongst us. Frankly, for good reason. They haven’t lived up to the hype. This time may be different. The innovation at this Canadian start up could score one for the iconoclasts. 

It remains to be seen if this innovation will be truly disruptive or, more importantly, if the company will be a commercial success. Odds are it won’t be as even start ups supposedly having "game changing hardware" are overwhelmingly destined to fail (~90%) for any number of reasons; mostly finance and marketing related. To understand why is a a deeper discussion you can have with me when you hire me. I'm passionate about putting you in the Top 10%. That said, I’m still in awe of the iconoclastic inventors of this technology (astronomers, BTW) who refused to stop seeing things differently despite being told countless times that they needed to… take their heads out of the sky. 

Yes, I cleaned that up.

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