Disruption is one of the inevitabilities of dynamic business environments. It is both a source for driving new innovations as well as a challenging risk factor to manage. New technologies, novel business models, supply chain innovations, evolving modes of media, crossovers from other industries (and more!) all have the power to affect or even derail your business. Disruption can come from known competitors, unknown entities, foreign companies, supply chain players, or partnerships among multiple groups. All companies are susceptible to disruption – across all industries, at every scale, and in both strong and weak players.

Some companies play the role of the disruptor, while others are continually caught off guard by disruptions in their space. Certain companies are aware of disruptions building momentum, but are powerless to stop them. A select few companies use disruption awareness as a competitive advantage by tracking emerging signs and proactively applying tactics to protect their interests. Where does your company fall in this spectrum?

Disruptions get their power from the element of surprise and from breaking industry norms. They can be very difficult to identify, track, and manage. So how do you prepare for the possibility of disruption in your business? ipCapital has found that companies who actively manage disruption do the following:

1. Develop their own disruptions, by:
• Actively seeking new innovations from a variety of sources;
• Understanding the strategies of their top competitors and identifying peripheral and potential competitors;
• Protecting IP for the long term – today’s idea may be tomorrow’s success, and
• Assessing risks in the marketplace.


2. Build a customized Disruption Prediction Model, by:
• Studying past disruptions to define their characteristics and develop “signatures of disruption” across the market, technology, financial, and IP space;
• Developing a model to predict future disruptions, by:
• Assembling the best set of resources for your area of business;
• Building, then extensively testing, a model to identify disruption signatures in your space; and
• Leveraging the model to track tomorrow’s potential disruptions.


3. Build a “Tool Chest” to defend against disruptions, by:
• Identifying the possible disruption scenarios in your business; and
• Preparing an action plan or tactic for each scenario, such as inventing in front of a promising technology, creating technical publications to prevent others from patenting, early identification of potential partners, etc.


4. Develop an executable strategy to manage present or future disruptions, by:
• Integrating the Tool Chest, Disruption Prediction Model, and being a Disruptor into an IP Strategy;
• Ensuring there are processes in place to execute the strategy; and
• Providing a detailed, actionable roadmap with an execution strategy.

Managing disruption requires being proactive, not reactive. It takes time, effort, and resources to get ahead and stay ahead of potential disruptions. If you need help with creating your own disruptions or dealing with potential disruptions to your business, ipCapital can help. Contact us to discuss your needs.