Disruptive Vs. Incremental innovation

What's the difference between incremental and disruptive innovation?

We can understand incremental innovation through the work of specialists and technicians. As hikers walking the long trail, experts spend their lives learning, refining and mastering the best practices in their field.

Disruptive innovation, on the other hand, is something instantaneous, and most likely to happen when we are not 'consciously' thinking about our product or service. Furthermore, I would suggest that the more we know about our product or service, the more difficult it is for us to stumble upon disruptive innovation.

The fundamental differences between incremental and disruptive innovation are their starting point and their desired outcomes.

Knowledge is the primary source of incremental innovation. By knowing their product and the processes required to manufacture it, experts apply and adapt new technologies to improve efficiency and reducing errors and defects. Incremental innovation aspires to perfection.

Creativity and not knowledge is the starting point for disruptive innovation. Let's define creativity as the ability to shift our perception of one or more parts of our current strategy.

Let me close saying that companies need both incremental and disruptive innovation.

While we are getting better at incremental innovation, I believe there is work to be done in becoming more creative and empathetic for our customers.

Stefano Messori is a Design Strategist and Corporate Trainer in the area of Creativity and Strategic Design for Business Innovation.

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[zakkyang]

The definition of disruptive innovation seems not right. Please refer some paper from Clayton Christensen.

[zm]

Quite a misleading definition of disruptive innovation. Please refer to Schumpeter's work on creative destruction, Kim and Maugarbone's work on blue ocean strategies and endeavor to understand Harvard Business Reviews article on the disruptive innovation model before attempting to teach the subject.

[mrgekko]

Very bad understanding about the Innovators Dilemma