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More than a decade ago, business gurus were quick to label any idea or development that was mildly novel as “disruptive innovation.” Originally coined by American academic and business consultant Clayton Christensen in his 1997 book The Innovator’s Dilemma, it was used largely to describe how small businesses could challenge larger players within a market, often entering at the low end and moving upmarket and disrupting established competitors’ core business.
But in the mid-2010s, gone were the days of the so-called disruptors, as critics began noting how the term had become a business buzzword rather than a term that was describing