Should disruptive technology be considered as a marketing challenge or a technological one?

Disruptive technologies shape our future as their innovations have a naturally destructive effect. We currently see that blockchain technology is disruptive, but cars and televisions were also disruptive when they came out. While these innovations and technologies destroy many things, they bring their dynamics along with them. For instance, taxi drivers threatened by UBER or hotels that are the backbone of tourism threatened by Airbnb. Many companies began to renew themselves and adapt as the winning parties increased. Unfortunately, we also see that many institutions can’t survive in disruptive innovations and fail. Netflix’s defeat of giant media companies or the blockchain technology challenged against the old systems showed how technology plays a critical role and thus how to dominate the market. If Henry Ford had dreamed of faster horses like everyone else in his time, there would be neither developments nor destructions.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. -Henry Ford

On the other hand, I think one of the main technological challenges of disruptive technology is a lack of knowledge about how to develop and use these technologies to create new ideas and digital economies like Uber, Airbnb, Alibaba, Netflix, etc. had done.

We cannot ignore that we are not ready for this disruptive technology. It is not easy to keep up with the speed of technology and to immediately master new concepts and to produce innovations. Today, many companies are too cumbersome and reluctant to grasp the dynamics of the change created by technology. We must be ready to adopt that will protect us against disruptive technologies and speed up our business.

As Buckminster Fuller said: “You never change things by fighting against the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.”