Paul Paetz is the CEO of Innovative Disruption, a boutique consultancy that works with innovators to bring disruptive products to fruition and market success. His deep knowledge of disruptive innovation was first acquired the hard way back in the 1980s, when he began his career with a highly innovative software company that could have, but didn’t, disrupt the market — something that he remained curious about, and continued trying to discern why some companies with superior technology never had breakout success, while others with unlikely products scored big. Clay Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma resonated strongly with Paetz’s earlier experiences, and he found his true calling when he joined The Disruption Group, a consultancy that specialized in providing advisory services concerning market disruption. In 2008, he started his second company, Innovative Disruption, focused specifically on advising and helping startups with disruptive potential, and providing insights for larger companies whose markets were being disrupted. Paetz is the creator of the Disruption Report Card, a tool that scores disruptive potential, and is the author of the popular blog Disrupt This.

http://www.innovativedisruption.com/paul-paetz/

http://www.amazon.com/Disruption-Design-Products-Disrupt-Dominate/dp/1430246324

http://www.forbes.com/sites/martinzwilling/2015/03/19/will-your-business-innovation-disrupt-the-market/

On Innovation Navigation, Paul spoke about what disruption is and how it’s identified. The traditional idea of offering a lower quality product to an underserved market segment at a lower price point is not actually that useful for identification – that could also just describe a bad product! He identifies disruptive products by their effects, looking for “ripples, not stones.” These come about from disruptions in supply and demand curves, as products’ price drop to zero, as a smartphone makes a watch needless for many people, for example.