"Break Technologies" Gradually Disrupt Industries

Extracted 17JAN2012 from http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/01/why_break_technologies_will_ch.html

by Maxwell Wessel

Beginning with gathering basic resources and ending with delivering goods to customers, markets and businesses will optimize the value chain in order to deliver goods and services to consumers at optimal levels.

...as Clayton Christensen aptly points out, disruption occurs over time — not in a specific instant. While the value chain will optimize for specific circumstances, often technologies are created that eliminate the need for certain pieces of an industry's value chain...

In its simplest conception, a "break technology" breaks supply chains and value networks in at least one industry... In any situation where a part of your industry's production or distribution process becomes obsolete, a break technology is likely responsible.

While we spend a great deal of time looking at our strategy, our competitors' strategies, and the technologies that affect us dramatically — how often do we consider the impact that peripheral technologies will have on how we compete?

Will your business be affected by mobile internet? By Near Field Communications (NFC)? By 3-D printing? By cloud storage? More importantly, will your business model need to change?