As a preliminary remark I'd say that the word "disruption" is very often used to describe any innovation that changes an industry’s competitive patterns (including by people who should know better, such as McKinsey/BCG and VCs). So it's no surprise that many would-be disruptors don't disrupt: they never fit the pattern described by Prof. Christensen in the 1st place.
Now when I was head of strategy in a world leading factoring company I did wonder whether fintechs were potential disruptors. I faced 2 challenges:
1/ I realised that it's not a straightforward question notably - and maybe surprinsingly - on what criterion is their offering inferior to ours that so far compels them to compete in a niche and how could they improve their product so that it disrupt us?
2/ It was hard to mobilise the executive team to face a challenge that did not exist yet and may never materialise. Rather than invest to disrupt ourselves - and the industry - the CEO preferred to wait for the fintechs to disappear like in the dot.com bubble. I called this "strategy" the ghost dance in reference to the Lakotas who thought they just needed to dance to make the white men disappear and the buffalos come back (it ended in the Wounded Knee massacre...)
As a preliminary remark I'd say that the word "disruption" is very often used to describe any innovation that changes an industry’s competitive patterns (including by people who should know better, such as McKinsey/BCG and VCs). So it's no surprise that many would-be disruptors don't disrupt: they never fit the pattern described by Prof. Christensen in the 1st place.
Now when I was head of strategy in a world leading factoring company I did wonder whether fintechs were potential disruptors. I faced 2 challenges:
1/ I realised that it's not a straightforward question notably - and maybe surprinsingly - on what criterion is their offering inferior to ours that so far compels them to compete in a niche and how could they improve their product so that it disrupt us?
2/ It was hard to mobilise the executive team to face a challenge that did not exist yet and may never materialise. Rather than invest to disrupt ourselves - and the industry - the CEO preferred to wait for the fintechs to disappear like in the dot.com bubble. I called this "strategy" the ghost dance in reference to the Lakotas who thought they just needed to dance to make the white men disappear and the buffalos come back (it ended in the Wounded Knee massacre...)