Disruptive innovations are complex

Good management attempts to value clear, simple processes that are optimized for maximum return on investment. Disruptive innovations are intrinsically complex, in that they are ambiguous and have many unknowns.

Disruptive innovations are complex because their value and application are uncertain, according to the criteria used by incumbent firms. … “the most formidable barrier the established firms faced is that they did not want to do this.”[1]


#innovation #complexity

See also:


  1. The Innovator’s Dilemma – Christensen (1997), ch. 2, 54–55. ↩︎