Disruptive Innovation Is Just as Powerful on a Small Scale
Don’t think you have to upend an entire industry
My husband was recently looking for a juicer.
We love fresh squeezed orange juice, but using a manual juicer was too hard on my wrists. Since I write for a living, inflamed wrists mean I can’t work.
We’ve tried automatic juicers in the past, and the results were less than satisfactory. Common flaws were:
- juicing too much, so that the bitter pith was included
- juicing too little, so that much of the fruit was wasted
- creating a foamy beverage that was nothing like juice
- taking a very long time to produce juice
Also, the juicers were difficult to operate, noisy, and difficult to clean.
He discovered a company based in California that has completely rethought juicing. Their team of engineers hold over 100 different patents, and they fixed every issue.
How? By thinking about what manual juicers do. As you press down on an orange, you start by pressing lightly. Then, you increase the pressure until you feel the juicer scraping the rind.
They invented a system that automatically does the same thing. It starts with a light pressure, and gradually increases. When it senses the rind, it stops.
The whole process takes maybe 10 seconds.
They solved every flaw on the list, and then some. It’s also easy to operate, easy to clean, and quiet.
Juicing is not an industry
When people talk about disruptive innovation, they refer to things like cell phones. Personal computers. Netflix streaming.
These things not only created entirely new industries, they destroyed old industries.
Netflix streaming eliminated video stores, and is contributing to killing cable TV.
Personal computers eliminated typewriters for all but a few specialized purposes. They also put a real dent in the mainframe business.
Cell phones have eliminated pay phones, and changed how telecommunications companies charge customers.
How can one juicer do anything like that?
One appliance at a time
If you look at the companies behind these innovations, you’ll see a trend. The initial product was not what disrupted the industry.
Netflix started as mail-order distribution of hard to find movie classics on DVD. They developed streaming as a way of reducing mailing costs.
Personal computers were originally almost toys. They needed advances in memory, storage, processing, graphics, and printing.
Cell phones alone were not a game changer. Smart phones were the game changer. But there would have been no smart phones without the original stupid phones.
So creating a better juicer will not of itself disrupt anything. What it will do is let the company grow their share of the kitchen appliance industry. They have already rolled out a cold brew coffee maker that smashes the competition.
When they create their truly disruptive appliance — maybe one that does all your cooking for you! — they will have a base of customers. People will forget that they started with a juicer and coffee maker.
Conclusion
Don’t think that you need to upend an entire industry to be successful. Start small.
Find something that people buy because it’s all there is, even though they’re not happy. Then find a way to fix all the problems with the common solutions.
Use that to grow your impact on the industry. Then you can disrupt it as much as you want.
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