In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, the word “innovation” gets thrown around quite a bit. However, it’s crucial for leaders, especially those in C-suite roles, to grasp the nuanced differences between Disruptive Innovation and Destructive Innovation. Despite the similarity in names, they are not interchangeable.
Several years ago, I was one of five keynote speakers at the Asian Disruptive Leadership Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The day before the event, they held a press conference with the speakers at a table and the media asking questions from the room. A young man directed a question to me. He asked, “Mr. Deming, can you tell us the difference between disruptive and destructive innovation?” In a few words, and more conversationally, I described it as follows.
