Innovation Doesn’t Have to Be Disruptive

Create new markets for growth without destroying existing companies or jobs. by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

From the Magazine (May–June 2023)

Claire Droppert

Summary.

For the past 20 years “disruption” has been a battle cry in business. Not surprisingly, many have come to see it as a near-synonym for innovation. But the obsession with disruption obscures an important truth: Market-creating innovation isn’t always disruptive. Disruption may be what people talk about. It’s certainly important, and it’s all around us. But, as the authors of the best-selling book Blue Ocean Strategy argue, it’s only one end of the innovation spectrum. On the other end is what they call nondisruptive creation, through which new industries, new jobs, and profitable growth are created without social harm. Nondisruptive creation reveals an immense potential to establish new markets where none existed before and, in doing so, to foster economic growth without a loss of jobs or damage to other industries, enabling business and society to thrive together.

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The era of international travel began in the mid-19th century, with the golden age of transatlantic ocean-going. The British company Cunard, a leader in the industry, transported millions of immigrants from Europe to the United States around the turn of the 20th century. By the end of World War II it had emerged as the largest Atlantic passenger line, operating 12 ships to the United States and Canada as it captured the flourishing North Atlantic travel market in the first postwar decade.

Read more on Innovation or related topics Disruptive innovation, Entrepreneurs and founders and Growth strategy

A version of this article appeared in the May–June 2023 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Read more on Innovation or related topics Disruptive innovation, Entrepreneurs and founders and Growth strategy

Innovation Doesn’t Have to Be Disruptive

Summary.

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