DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY CHANNEL INTRODUCTION

The Disruptive Technology channel of w3w3® is meant to provide a perspective on disruptive technologies, and a forward looking viewpoint that might allow our community to spot innovations as they are emerging. The content and interviews in this channel are from people that are involved in visioning, developing, funding and profiting from these emergent discoveries.

The Spitfire Group is a professional consultancy dedicated to helping high growth companies make sure that business and technology stay in tempo. We hope you enjoy the Disruptive Technologies Channel, brought to you by w3w3® and The Spitfire Group.

In 1942 the noted economist Joseph Schumpeter described the process of Creative Destruction. In his vision of capitalism, entrepreneurs would be encouraged via the use of new technology and ideas to replace, even crush, products, services, and indeed whole industries and economies. In no other industry is this concept more prevalent than in technology. Although Schumpeter could not have foreseen the development of the modern PC or the Internet, and the incredible impact these technologies have had on our society, he would have been pleased to note that they are clearly the best example of his concept of creative destruction. Today we call this entrepreneurial process Disruptive Technology; innovations that disrupt businesses, processes, industries, or the way in which people interact with companies or each other. These technologies can often be viewed as forces upon a changing society.

Some excellent examples of disruptive technology include Yahoo! and Google. Their impact on marketing is having wide reaching impacts in several industries (television, news print, etc). Other examples include Travelocity and Expedia. The number of travel agents today are a fraction of a percent of what they were 15 years ago.

The word disruptive often implies a negative connotation. To those people whose lives are severely changed or impacted by a disruptive technology, there can certainly be negative impacts, but as a whole, disruptive technologies are meant to create a better standard of living for society as a whole.

409_ Disruptive Technology: Unified Communications Will Change It All
Unified Communications is a lot of things to a lot of people; it is kind of an umbrella term really. But when you get down to it, It is the idea of taking your email and your voice mail, your text chat, your conferencing, even video conferencing and pulling them together in a way that they really work well together. That's how Terry Gold, Founder and CEO of Gold Systems answered when Mark Richtermeyer co-founder of the Spitfire Group and co-producer of the new "Disruptive Technology" Channel on w3w3.com brought up the 'disruptive technology' topic. Terry went on to explain, "For instance I no longer have to check my voice mail on two or three different phones, it all comes into my email inbox – it just has really simplified my life. You know we started out working with AT&T (16 years ago) and continue to work with AT&T – we work with transitional companies – AVAYA. But then CISCO came along and said “Hey, let’s put voice and video on the network” – we did work with them. Then about four years ago, Microsoft came along and said, 'We have a great messaging system and a superior form of exchange, and we’re going to be putting voice, video and conferencing – and bring all this together into a package you can have on your desktop' and we began working with them."
Related Links:  Gold Systems || Unified Communications ||  Spitfire Group || Disruptive Technology || Keywords: Terry Gold, Gold Systems, Disruptive Technology, Unified Communications, Mark Richtermeyer, Spitfire Group, Microsoft 11/12/07 Bytes: 23412718 LISTEN

Interview Listing

Mark Richtermeyer & Kimberly Lucas 10/07 Two Part Interview
Unified Communications - Terry Gold
LifePics: Vahe Christianian -12/3/07:

415_ Photography is Still Considered the No. 1 Hobby in the World
Disruptive technology has impacted almost all of us...some quicker and harder than others such as photography. "The technology today is so amazing. It’s so empowering, so invigorating. It is leveraging the “pixie dust” factor that we have every time we take a picture. The whole notion of creating images and memories is exemplified. Exciting future, in one or 2 years, you’ll be streaming all of your photos to every TV in your home, " predicts LifePics Founder, Vahe Christianian. Jon Strickler, Practice Director with Spitfire Group discussed Vahe how Disruptive Technology completely revolutionized the entire photography industry...with impacts to each of the extremes. Vahe Christianian started as the 'marketing man', in family business – Mike’s Camera, and they began to realize the effect digitization was going to have on the photo business. The big talk was, How quickly would it go digital?” It really caught lots of people in the industry, off guard. Companies like Polaroid going out of business and not being ready to deal with the challenges, Kodak has suffered through the years in trying to establish themselves as a true digital company. There were a lot of other players. But really the shift happened so quickly...that's what Disruptive Technology is all about. This is what out-of-the-box thinking is all about.
Related Links:  LifePics || Spitfire Group || Mike's Camera || Disruptive Technology Channel || Keywords: Disruptive Technology, LifePics, Spitfire Group, Vahe Christianian, John Strickland, Digital Media, Kodak, Photography 12/3/07 Bytes: 26079297 LISTEN

SpitFire Group (DT): The Winners and the Losers
Part 1 of 2
In 1942 the noted economist Joseph Schumpeter described the process of Creative Destruction. In his vision of capitalism, entrepreneurs would be encouraged via the use of new technology and ideas to replace, even crush, products, services, and indeed whole industries and economies. Spitfire Group Mark Richtermeyer & Kimberly Lucas, co-founders of the Spitfire Group and producers of the new "Disruptive Technology" Channel on w3w3.com point out that the word disruptive often implies a negative connotation. To those people whose lives are severely changed or impacted by a disruptive technology, there can certainly be negative impacts, but as a whole, disruptive technologies are meant to create a better standard of living for society as a whole. The way we view Disruptive Tech is thru the theory that new ideas in technology will negatively impact and even crush other technologies, industries and even in some cases, entire economies. Larry asked, "Does this mean disruptive technologies are bad?" Mark answered, "Well they are for some people. You always have to be inventing, or reinventing or adjusting the way you do business to make sure you stay on the forefront of where your market is going."   LISTEN  Part 1 of 2  Published 10/8/2007
Related Links:  Spitfire Group || Creative Destruction || Software Channel || PodCast Directory || Find It || Keywords:Disruptive Technology, Spitfire Group, Mark Richtermeyer, Kimberly Lucas, Bottom-line >
Discover and Invent Your Own Disruptive Technology (DT) Part 2 of 2
Today part of the entrepreneurial process is ‘disruptive technology’. It disrupts businesses, processes and industries, or the way in which people or businesses interact with each other. Mark Richtermeyer & Kimberly Lucas, co-founders of the Spitfire Group and producers of the new "Disruptive Technology" Channel on w3w3.com point out various examples of Disruptive Technology such as Google and Yahoo. They have impacted ways that marketing is executed, have wide reaching impacts in several industries such as news print and television. How do companies accomplish this? Managers have to do a few key things right. First, they have to provide an innovative environment and culture. They need to create businesses where the idea is to come up with new ideas where people won’t be afraid to take risks, and to find new ways to do things. They also have to stay close to their customers – understand what they want and how they want to get it. Pay attention to your competitors and to market trends. We’ve also developed these ‘Agile Methodologies’ into our business that allows us to reprioritize the business requirements on a regular basis. The lengths of time in which we do that, are getting shorter and shorter all the time. LISTEN  Part 2 of 2  Published 10/15/2007