“Disruption” is a strong contender for the ‘most misused word in business’ award.
When people say ‘disruption’ they are often pointing to the speed of change as much as its magnitude. Fundamental and rapid upheavals of industry or category. The introduction of a new technology or business model so profound that everything changes.
But these ‘hammer blow’ events are fairly uncommon.
It’s telling that amongst the most cited examples are still, Blockbuster falling to the convenience of streaming services, and Kodak losing out to the simplicity of digital photography. And even these two giants didn’t fall overnight.
It’s not that seismic shifts don’t occasionally occur, just that the vast majority come from a thousand small ‘disruptions’ over time.
Any time you introduce a new variable into a system you disrupt it. You cause movement, adaptation, change. And most of it incremental.
This is, of course, happening in every industry. Constantly.
Let’s stop calling our incremental changes ‘disruption’ and embrace evolution as a worthy and more fitting descriptor.