Free interactive learning tool

Disruption from Below

Good management can create the trap. Run the incumbent, serve your best customers, and watch a low-end entrant improve until good enough becomes enough for the market.

Incumbent strategy room Round 1 of 6

Your premium customers want more performance and higher margins. The entrant is weak but cheap at the low end.

Disruption performance chartIncumbent and entrant performance curves rise against customer demand and good-enough thresholds.

The trap feels rational

Incumbents often chase their best customers because the margins, feedback, and incentives all point upmarket.

Good enough moves

Low-end products improve faster than mainstream needs. Once they cross the threshold, price and simplicity become decisive.

Defence is a portfolio

Protecting the low end can look unattractive until it is too late. Separate teams and metrics often matter more than speeches.

Listen beyond your best customers.

The innovator's dilemma is not stupidity. It is a system where excellent local decisions add up to strategic exposure.

Ask which customers you are happy to lose today, what the cheap entrant is learning from them, and when “not good enough” might quietly become good enough.