Mission E price and deposit

[Ed Hart]

I am a big fan of Christensen, and I predict he will alter his stance. I offer these comments:

1. Was the first flat panel TV disruptive? They were very expensive. Few people had them. But as cost came down, flat panels took over the market. Only a few tube TV incumbents are still around today (Sony buys from China), so any of the missing players would certainly call the flat panel TV a disruptive technology, right?
2. When Christensen/Bartman did their study, they had not seen the real impact of Tesla. By showing that an EV can be a practical replacement for over 95% of car owner needs, Tesla has shown a cleaner transport future....which in turn has emboldened cities, states and whole nations to consider banning internal combustion vehicles altogether...some bans coming in the next few years. If I was an incumbent car maker, I would consider that future to be highly disruptive?! What do others think??

 

[Ed Hart]

I am a big fan of Christensen, and I predict he will alter his stance. I offer these comments:

1. Was the first flat panel TV disruptive? They were very expensive. Few people had them. But as cost came down, flat panels took over the market. Only a few tube TV incumbents are still around today (Sony buys from China), so any of the missing players would certainly call the flat panel TV a disruptive technology, right?
2. When Christensen/Bartman did their study, they had not seen the real impact of Tesla. By showing that an EV can be a practical replacement for over 95% of car owner needs, Tesla has shown a cleaner transport future....which in turn has emboldened cities, states and whole nations to consider banning internal combustion vehicles altogether...some bans coming in the next few years. If I was an incumbent car maker, I would consider that future to be highly disruptive?! What do others think??

 

[wayner]

Book recommendation: “The Innovator’s Dilemma” by Clayton Christensen.

Really explains how incumbent companies can do all the right things while managing themselves right off a cliff. This scenario may yet play out in EVs.

That is a very good book and there were a few follow-ups.

Most of the examples in that book started at the low end and were not seen as a threat by the incumbents - two examples that he gives are Toyota with compact cars and Sony with transistor radios. The American based market leaders laughed at them initially. But a few decades later they were the winners. And they eventually moved into the luxury end - Lexus being an example.

Tesla is coming at it from the opposite direction - they started at the high end and moving downmarket.