Which one wears the crown and what’s the difference?
Back in 1997 the term disruptive technology was used by Clayton M. Christensen in his best-selling book “The Innovator’s Dilemma”. Working as a Harvard Business School professor, he analysed the difference between disruptive and sustaining technology, to show the impact on profitability of businesses.
Disruptive technology was classified as ground breaking innovation which appeals to a small audience. With unproven technology there is a risk of performance problems and time may need to be spent refining the development, which can be a drain on finances. Lots of companies therefore steer away from this and stick with sustaining technology.
Sustaining technology is based in the incremental improvement of technology which has already been established. This can be done in various ways such as improving product performance, the environmental or social impact, or making a product more financially viable.
Many companies choose to stick with sustaining technology as a safe bet and will maintain a healthy growth of the evolution of its products. However, if disruptive technology is chosen, although it can be a longer and more expensive route, the benefits can far outweigh sustaining technology.
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The most important thing is to keep ahead of the competition, with your next new idea or product development. So, what does the Convert team think about developing technology? |
We put our Development Director, Dave Belcher, on the spot with a quick Q&A session…
Q & A
What is your philosophy on innovation?
While I would agree with many of Professor Christensen points, in practice we live in a commercial world and most companies benefit from a mix of approaches; rip up and start again when replacing a platform, then incrementally improve it over time until you are ready for the next tear-up..!However, with the pace of technology today, the time between replacing platforms is getting shorter and shorter, and so in larger companies the fastest route to a disruptive solution is more often to buy-in. This can save a lot of internal risky investment, and that’s where we can help…
What piece of innovation are you most proud of?
Normally whatever I am working on today, but no doubt Plato was a great product, especially Tempus, the flagship version. It was full of industry firsts, and the fact that all the major brands are now generating lookalike products is of course very flattering.
What is the most important thing to consider when inventing a new product?
Consider your end customer first, why would they want it, exactly how will they use it, and how much are they prepared to pay for it…?These questions are often surprisingly difficult to answer, and the answers may even change during development as the world around you changes and evolves. But if you keep focused on the customer you will not go far wrong.
How does technical development fit into Convert Technologies’ strategy?
It is without doubt central to our business and our DNA as a company. We have a strong engineering focus as a company, and our value and personal interest is in technology. It gets us out of bed in the morning.
What are the benefits of licencing technology?
Licensing allows large companies to focus on what they are good at. Technology is changing so fast now it is very difficult to keep all the skills you need in house. While a headphone company is probably pretty good at thinking about transducers, materials, production techniques and the like, they are a lot less comfortable thinking about user interfaces for apps, or how to structure an architecture capable of supporting today’s and future streaming technologies. It is very difficult and expensive to bring this broad range of skills in-house, and in fact it makes much more sense to license in the bits which fall outside of your skillset.Of course, there are lots of pitfalls to consider. It can be very difficult to evaluate the value of any new partners when their skillset is way outside yours, choosing the right partner is essential to achieving success.
How do you work with your partners to develop a product or enhancement?
We can minimise some of the risks inherent in buying in solutions. We concentrate on areas where we have a deep knowledge-base, we don’t offer solutions based on contracted-in skills, and most of our designs are based on proven technology developed for Plato, underpinned by many, many years of collective experience.We know what it takes to develop a real product. There is often a big gap between a working prototype in the lab, and 100,000 happy customers in the field. Understanding this gap is crucial to success. However, I believe what separates us from the competition is our flexible approach. We try to work with partners to build the products they want, rather than having them building products around our licensed solutions.It’s an exciting time in our industry, constantly driven by new technologies and innovations, and an exciting time to be part of Convert Technologies.
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