2020-03-01 MIT Sloan Management Review

EXECUTIVE BRIEFINGS

SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU

From Disruptionto Collision:

The New Competitive

Dynamics

Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani

pp. 34-39

Collisions between innovators and established

players are forcing leaders of existing companies

to reexamine how they do business in settings

where new players follow radically different rules.

For many, making small or incremental changes

won’t be enough. They will need to fundamen-

tally alter their operating models, including how

they gather and respond to information and how

they interact with their customers.

REPRINT 61320

To Disrupt or Not to Disrupt?

Joshua Gans

pp. 40-45

Rather than single-mindedly heading down the

path of would-be disrupter, new entrepreneurial

companies can and should evaluate the trade-offs

between disruption and other strategies. Doing

so allows them to choose a strategy that is right

for that startup, in that market, at that time,

and to learn as the company commercializes

its idea. To disrupt or not to disrupt? That is

a very important question.

REPRINT 61302

86 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW SPRING 2020

The Future of Platforms

Michael A. Cusumano, David B. Yoffie,

and Annabelle Gawer

pp. 46-54

Innovation and transaction platforms have

enabled nearly every type of exchange and

activity imaginable in today’s world, earning

some of the companies that own them

valuations in excess of $1 trillion. But while

successful platforms yield a powerful competitive

advantage with financial results to match, the

nature of platforms is changing, as are the

ecosystems and technologies that drive them

and the challenges and rules associated with

managing them.

REPRINT 61304

How Leaders Delude

Themselves About

Disruption

Scott D. Anthony and Michael Putz

pp. 56-63

Why are companies still so vulnerable to

disruptive threats? The problem isn’t that they

don’t have the right playbook. It’s that well-

intentioned leaders often downplay disruptive

threats or overestimate the difficulty of response.

In simple terms, they lie to themselves. This

means that dealing with disruption is not just