disruptive
Innovative or groundbreaking in a way that creates a new market and eventually displaces established market leaders and alliances.
In business, 'disruptive' isn't just 'annoying'; it refers specifically to the 'Disruptive Innovation' theory where a smaller company with fewer resources successfully challenges established businesses.
Word relationships
- radical: Radical implies a change at the root level, but disruptive implies the displacement of existing systems.
- revolutionary: Revolutionary is a broader term for change; disruptive is specific to market dynamics.
- sustaining: Sustaining innovations improve existing products for existing customers, the opposite of disruptive ones.
Commonly confused with
- destructive: Destructive only means to ruin; disruptive means to replace with something new and often better.
Word family
- disrupt (verb): To interrupt an event or process.
- disruption (noun): The act of disrupting something.
Collocations
- disruptive technology
- disruptive innovation
- disruptive force
- disruptive influence
Example sentences
- "Disruptive innovation is not a breakthrough that makes good products better." Business Theory
- "Digital photography was a disruptive technology that eventually made film cameras obsolete." Market Trends
Memory hook
Think of a 'rupture' in a pipe that changes the entire flow of water. Breaking the old to build the new.
When not to use
Do not use it to mean 'broken' or 'inefficient'; it implies a powerful, strategic shift.
Fun facts
- The term 'disruptive innovation' was coined by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen in 1995.
Related words
Explore more words
disrupt, innovate, cutting-edge, intrusive, iconoclastic, unorthodox
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