Michael Raynor: Disrupting Wireless Now... Laptops Tomorrow

Michael Raynor, disruption expert and co-author of The Innovator's Solution, presented an excellent overview on disruption at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium, aka Blackberry conference in Orlando.

The point that hit home for me was when Raynor summarized one of the dilemmas of disruption and the tough challenge faced by managers who promote disruption as a way to create growth because they target small unknown markets with products that look deficient to the mainstream:

"Disruptive ideas look like bad ideas... Unfortunately, bad ideas look like bad ideas."

I was also struck by one of Raynor's closing notes, when he told the audience (largely BlackBerry software developers) that if they created more great applications for BlackBerry, it could disrupt the market for portable information devices, presumably laptops.  This surpised me because I thought BlackBerry was already disruptive, at least in the wireless data market. 

Perhaps there are two lessons here:

• What appears disruptive in one market may not be disruptive in another;
• Disruptors can choose to move into and disrupt other, larger markets.

Maybe that's why Intel seems to work so closely with RIM these days.

For a minute-by minute account of Raynor's keynote speech, check BlackBerryCool.

Videos of Michael Raynor discussing disruptive innovation at other events can be downloaded here.