Bottom-Up Innovation
The greatest threat to market leaders often comes from below, not above. Studying the disk drive industry reveals a curious pattern: established firms excel at improving existing products but consistently fail to spot or adapt to simpler, cheaper alternatives. These companies demonstrate remarkable market insight when they first enter an industry, but somewhere along the way, they lose their ability to identify new applications and opportunities. Their focus on "up-market" innovations becomes a strategic blindspot, creating opportunities for new entrants to disrupt from below.