Disruptive Innovation: Opportunities and Risks

Strategies-Most organizations already use disruptive innovation (DI) as a strategic advantage for competitiveness. Organizations using DI are only successful if they develop a needs based venture into the marketplace. The sole purpose of DI is to provide consumers with alternative methods that may be a better option for the consumer rather than the system that is already in place. Organizations that exercise the DI strategy are in a much better position than an organization that does not use DI for the reason that organizations enlarge their scope of service resulting in generating substantial revenue and nationwide growth expansion. Consumers will generally become loyal customers if purchasing from the company is beneficial to fulfilling their needs. The opportunities of DI in strategy implementation include:

?Providing consumers with convenient alternatives that are cost-effective.
?Enhance competitiveness.
?Improve consumer satisfaction.
?Improvements to existing systems or networks.
?Bridge the gap between new and existing clients/customers.

"Many organizations rely on serendipitous acts of creativity to foster innovation.
Others take an ad hoc, unstructured approach, which often results in only
incremental improvements with poor implementation that can lack sponsorship.
Strategic Innovation is a holistic, systematic approach focused on generating
beyond-incremental, breakthrough or discontinuous innovations. Innovation
becomes "strategic" when it is an intentional, repeatable process that creates a significant difference in the value delivered to consumers, customers, partners and
the corporation." (Palmer and Kaplan, n.d.).

Products-DI is the underlying element that extends business practices to meet the needs of an untapped, forgotten, or ignored market. Instead of engaging in consumer biases, DI eliminates prejudicial consumer targets and unleashes their products and services on the average working class citizens, whereas some organizations only target consumers who may be interested in more expensive products. For example, Fred Leighton jewelry store, is a company that appeals to high-end clientele thus alienating a significant population of consumers. The disruptive innovator to Fred Leighton's jewelry store would include pawn shops, or other jewelry stores that would offer average working class citizens the ability to purchase expensive jewelry that is more affordable. DI allows for major organizations to reposition themselves in the marketplace. DI is a combination of strategy and innovation that is easily accessible for anyone as opposed to organizations that differentiate between consumers based on buying and behavioral purchasing patterns and consumers who base purchase decisions on needs instead of wants.