The Disruptive Organization

Abstract

"Disruption" as a: to break apart b: to throw into disorder.

Clayton M. Christensen (1997) describes an innovator's dilemma, which concerns the adoption of technologies so new and dramatically different they are characterized as disruptive technologies. Christensen and Mark W. Johnson had described the dynamics of "business model innovation" in the Harvard Business Review 2008 article "Reinventing Your Business Model".

The above concept of "Disruption" is applicable to all processes of the organization and specifically to those processes that concern its "People". This paper identifies organizational processes that have the potential to change radically using the "Disruptive" approach.

The term "Disruptive Innovation" has been lately used with path-breaking technological innovations that have created a new market for itself or have altered an already existing market for a similar product. Product innovations from the yesteryear Sony Walkmans to today's i-Phones can be categorized under the term of disruptive innovation. Organizations today have to identify their forte in a very cliched marketplace. Sustaining a path-breaking innovation needs orchestrated alignment of all other functions in the organization, specifically those that touch the people side of the business. A Disruptive Organization aims at achieving that alignment.

How are organizations managing to do a trapeze artist stunt by balancing the act between having an informal culture at the same time nurturing an entrepreneurial dream among its workforce? Can a "Disruptive" approach to organizational re-engineering be sustainable in the long run? This paper attempts to answer these questions.