Nathan Furr

Daniel Snow

<article-ideainbrief class="article-ideainbrief">
 <h4 class="ideainbrief-title">Idea in Brief</h4>
 <div class="ideainbrief-contents">
  <h5>The Problem</h5>
  <p>It’s often difficult to predict whether a potential disruption will turn an industry upside down and, if so, how quickly the change will happen. Managing that transition is a huge challenge.</p>
  <h5>The Approach</h5>
  <p>Developing a hybrid product—one that combines emerging technologies with existing ones—is a smart way to tackle the challenge. This approach allows companies to do two things: learn as they go and shape where the industry’s headed.</p>
  <h5>The Details</h5>
  <p>The authors identify seven types of hybrids and sort them into three categories, depending on whether a disruption is well under way, just getting started, and or a distant possibility.</p>
 </div>
</article-ideainbrief><p>Thomas Edison’s lightbulb ushered out the gaslight era as completely as it ushered in the age of electric power. But the gas companies didn’t fall victim to disruption immediately, and it could be argued they never entirely succumbed.</p>

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<p>Responding to disruptive innovation may be one of the greatest challenges managers in established firms face. On the one hand, they&#8217;ve been warned that disruption can sneak up and destroy their business. On the other, experience tells them that disruptions can take years, even decades, to play out. And some that threaten never occur at all.</p>
<p>Whether a company moves too early to adopt a disruptive technology or too late, it ends up wasting resources and squandering competitive advantage.</p>
<p>In this article, the authors outline an effective way to manage the uncertain transition from an established technology, service, or business model to a disruptive one. Companies should develop hybrids, which combine elements from a disruptive technology with the current technology to create a new offering that sits between competing innovation generations: Think Prius, which combines elements from both internal combustion and electric engines.</p>
<p>The authors identify seven types of hybrids that companies can use, depending on whether a disruption is already under way, just getting started, and/or a distant possibility.</p>

The Prius Approach

Responding to disruptive innovation may be one of the greatest challenges managers in established firms face. On the one hand, they’ve been warned that disruption can sneak up and destroy their business. On the other, experience tells them that disruptions can take years, even decades, to play out. And some that threaten never occur at all. Whether a company moves too early to adopt a disruptive technology or too late, it ends up wasting resources and squandering competitive advantage. In this article, the authors outline an effective way to manage the uncertain transition from an established technology, service, or business model to a disruptive one. Companies should develop hybrids, which combine elements from a disruptive technology with the current technology to create a new offering that sits between competing innovation generations: Think Prius, which combines elements from both internal combustion and electric engines. The authors identify seven types of hybrids that companies can use, depending on whether a disruption is already under way, just getting started, and/or a distant possibility.

The Prius Approach

Summary.

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