Is your company targeted for disruption?

1. Sponsored by
SIX SIGNS THAT YOUR
COMPANY IS TARGETED
FOR DISRUPTION

2. IS YOUR COMPANY
TARGETED FOR
DISRUPTION?
Digital disruption is
happening in every major
industry—no exceptions.
Many executives are looking over
their shoulder to see if they are in
the crosshairs of a digital insurgent.
But sometimes it is not easy to
distinguish ongoing competition
from truly revolutionary disruption.
Not all companies are faced with
a clear and immediate disruption
scenario. The following are six
signs that your company may be
targeted for disruption.

3. IS VENTURE CAPITAL (VC) TARGETING YOUR INDUSTRY?
While they may not get it right all the time, a lot of VC
money flowing into your industry indicates a consensus
that your company and industry can be out-competed
on technology. It is a collective bet on your disruption.
VCs love digital challenges to traditional
industries. Facebook, Airbnb and Uber were
all created with the backing of venture funds.

4. New cloud-based
platforms can provide
a low-cost basis for an
alternative retailer, bank
or service firm.
Therefore many disruptors use
technology to compete on price—
for example, robo-advisers that
are undercutting traditional asset
management fees by 75%.
Are your sales people reporting
pressure on prices? Are margins
being squeezed? This could be
pricing pressure coming from
low-cost disruptors.
NEW PRESSURE
ON PRICING

5. Surveys consistently show
that millennial customers
are more comfortable with
technology, and less loyal
to established brands,
than boomers.
They often present the first rank of
defectors, and an out-migration of this
critical customer segment could be an
early signal of disruptive alternatives.
LOSS OF YOUNGER
CUSTOMERS

6. YOUR BEST IT PEOPLE
ARE DEFECTING
Is your culture so old-
school that you are losing
IT personnel to your
disruptive competition?
Are you becoming a training
ground for the very firms that are
challenging you? What do they
know that is causing them to
make the switch?

7. LEGACY SYSTEM BYPASS
Are your internal customers
going outside the system to
get things done?
Are they practicing “bring your own
app” to get the functionality they need?
Are they developing cloud-based
alternatives to the company networks?
If they are seeing the benefits, so
might your disruptive competition.
Your technology may be making you
vulnerable to external disruption.

8. A COMPETITOR
ACQUIRES AN
INSURGENT
Some firms are concluding
that the best way to beat
disruptors is to buy them out.
The combination of a promising new
tech approach with the customers
and deep pocket of an established
competitor can present a potent
threat to the old order.
A competitor’s acquisition of a
disruptive challenger can signal their
belief in the new model, and create
a significant new challenger.
This is one of a series of Economist
Intelligence Unit discussions, sponsored
by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, on
the digital transformation journey. For
in-depth analyses of digital disruption,
securing the internet of things and
managing legacy technology, please
click on these links.