The Disruptive Voice, episode 15: On the disruptive potential of Uber and the platform business model — with disruption theory experts HBS Professor Rory McDonald, Innosight Managing Partner Scott D. Anthony, Christensen Institute co-founder Michael B. Horn, and Forum Senior Researchers Tom Bartman and Efosa Ojomo

Is Uber disruptive? Nothing like using a trick question to rile up five theory experts who have strong opinions about Uber, the latest Silicon Valley company to have its name verb-ified to describe most any entrepreneurial venture in the on-demand economy.

In this episode, we revisit Professor Clayton M. Christensen’s December 2015 article in Harvard Business Review, “What Is Disruptive Innovation,” with article co-author Rory McDonald, as well as four long-time collaborators with Professor Christensen: Innosight Managing Partner Scott D. Anthony, Christensen Institute co-founder Michael B. Horn, and Forum Senior Researchers Tom Bartman and Efosa Ojomo.

While this panel of theory experts share a strict set of guidelines to define what is and isn’t disruptive, their application of the theory to Uber varies quite widely. And yet — their outlook for the future varies much less than you might think.

https://soundcloud.com/hbsfgi/disruptivevoice15

Additional reading:

• Clayton M. Christensen, Michael Raynor, and Rory McDonald in Harvard Business Review, “What Is Disruptive Innovation” (December 2014)
• Scott Anthony in Harvard Business Review, “What’s Holding Uber Back” (June 2014) and “How Understanding Disruption Helps Strategists” (November 2015)
• Michael Horn, Forbes, “Uber, disruptive innovation, and regulated markets” (June 2016)

Theories used in this episode: Disruption, RPP’s, business model

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