Paul Smyth, one of the investment managers at eSynergy wrote:
if you are looking for funding in the next 6-8 months and you have a different idea – and that means properly different, something that isn’t a ‘me too’ with a different angle then come and speak to us.
eSynergy are the fund managers for NISPO the local government-backed investment fund. They have a proof of concept fund (vouched in arrears) and a VC fund (as well as two other funds, one for each university).
I wonder about the definition of disruptive though. Looking at industries which have been disrupted –
- who would have guessed that a company could make money in online search after the dot-com boom. We certainly had plenty of search engines but Google was disruptive with their own brand of “me too”. And they’ve retained that edge by investing heavily in disrupting industries where their competitors make money but giving it away for free (email, productivity, etc).
- who would have though that Apple, having narrowly missed death and chased the home movie market would have made a right-angle turn and chased the music market with such gusto to the extend that less than a decade later, they own it? Others were doing online music – just doing it badly. Others were doing MP3 players, just again doing them badly.
- who would have identified Amazon as truly disruptive, selling books online. Now, Amazon was founded in 1994 and now sells pretty much everything. They’re my default location for books, music, games, consumer electronics. They took 7 years to turn a profit and now have revenues of $24B. Were they disruptive? Ask booksellers on the High Street.
- who would have predicted that people would become addicted to the Blackberry device from Research in Motion which has turned a tiny Canadian company into a $15B company. RIM is weathering a hughe onslaught from other disruptive technology such as Android, iPhone and other hungry smartphone manufacturers. But they were the first with the vision that we’d want email on the go.
I am concerned that local investors don’t necessarily have the education and experience to deal with something that is truly disruptive as opposed to something that seems extraordinary. At BizcampBelfast earlier this week, Kevin Parker put the following definition on screen:
Invention is the process of turning cash into ideas. Innovation is the process of turning ideas into cash.
And I really like that definition. If you were reword it to indicate the difference between disruptive and extraordinary, it might read like this.
We may see and want the extraordinary every day, but we tell ourselves we need the disruptive.
I’d like to invite you to explain in the comments what is disruptive, how it affects you, how it makes you feel. And if you can fit a definition (not unlike the one above) into around 140 characters, then post into the comments. I’ll give a £10 iTunes voucher to the best one (so make sure to include your contact details)
Disruptive is challenging the status quo and delivering something that is better, something that sets the benchmark by which all others are compared from that point onwards.
Disruptive means elevating standards by changing mindsets using a unique approach or attitude.
Great post Matt and some excellent examples of what are truly disruptive companies. The one thing the cited examples have in common (IMO) is that they changed how the end consumer gets what they wanted, they made it easier or more joined up. These examples are about enablement.
@cdburrows tweeted about a definition of disruption after my post too.
Christensen: “product or service that was historically only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill.”
I like Chris’s definition conceptually. It may not be quite right for the times we live in but it represents this idea that disruption brings something previously only available to the few to the many.
My Dictionary tells me… to be insubordinate.. an old boss told me same… you’re disruptive, generally insubordinate and a pain, but you’re my best seller and whats worse you’re encouraging everyone to do it your way…. I don’t like it.
My experience was on a small scale but I thought there was a different way of doing things and it got me more commission.
On a bigger scale we need business leaders to be insubordinate, to challenge the norm, to innovate.
Disruption, challenges me, makes me feel uneasy at times but most importantly part of something, I bought a Blackberry when they first came out and thought I was at the cutting edge of technology.. email on my phone.. laugh but its how it made me feel, and it made me feel part of Blackberry and I spent more!
Extraordinary goes beyond what was possible. Everyone applauds the invention as they shared the vision that was eventually reached.
Disruption is more akin to innovation. It is a new vision (often achieved with existing capability). No one else saw it coming and they cannot copy or compete until they first understand.
I’m not altogether in love with the term, and I think the difficulty in finding a good definition for it proves that it’s more jargon than an actual business model.
I prefer the word “original”, and that can apply to the product or service, or the way in which you run the business. If you are original enough that you have a success on your hands, then I suspect others will call you “disruptive”, especially if you overtake an existing business in the same line of work.
“Disruptive” is an adjective rendered quite useless in this context through its over-use in mundane “elevator speeches” penned by unimaginative mar-comms departments and cheap business gurus at regular intervals over the last ten years. It generally doesn’t affect me, as I’ve heard it so many times it goes straight over my head. How does it make me feel? It makes me want to read something a bit more eloquent and descriptive. Actually, it probably should be banned. Oops – more than 140 characters. Looks like I’ll be missing out on my third copy of “Sgt. Pepper”, which really was “disruptive”, though someone once did try to convince me that it was ripped off something by The Beach Boys. As if.
Disruption is the creation of a new reality. An inflection point, an event horizon. Once passed there is no going back. The world works differently now.