Disruptive Voice podcast, episode 10: American Express: Joe Costa (JD/MBA 2016) and Jeff Cui (JD/MBA 2017) — BSSE research paper

“It’s a funny feeling to find yourself talking about JP Morgan and calling them “”low-end,”” but such is the nature of disruptive innovation: as a theory of competition, the labels it employs are relative, not absolute. In the credit card industry, American Express is the undisputed incumbent, leaving JP Morgan to be labeled as the low-end disruptor with their Chase Sapphire credit card, as noted by JD/MBA students Joe Costa (2016) and Jeff Cui (2017) in their final paper for BSSE, Clay Christensen’s course at the Harvard Business School.

The Disruptive Voice, episode 10: American Express with Joe Costa and Jeff Cui

In this episode of the Disruptive Voice, we explore how American Express found themselves in the equally enviable and threatened position of incumbent, and how these two students of disruption theory who share a deep understanding of the financial regulatory environment would advise American Express to preserve the premium brand they’ve built over the last century. Spoiler alert: it’s not to enhance their popular rewards program or layer on new services to their concierge arm

Theories mentioned in this episode: Disruption (low-end), RPP’s, LBM/RBM, JTBD

(l-r) Tracy Kim Horn, Jeff Cui, Joe Costa

— Tracy Kim Horn, Community Manager, Forum for Growth & Innovation