Innovation does not have to be Disruptive.

In today's fast-paced and ever-changing business environment, disruption has become a buzzword. Companies are constantly striving to disrupt existing markets, create new ones, and gain a competitive edge. However, in the pursuit of disruption, many companies overlook a more sustainable and effective approach to innovation: nondisruptive creation.

Beyond Disruption, the new book published by Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, authors of Blue Ocean Strategy this week shows how this new approach to innovation allows companies to grow while also being a force for good. The basic idea behind this concept is that companies can create new markets and products without disrupting existing ones. 

Consider these examples, Netflix vs. Blockbuster, Amazon vs. booksellers and main street retailers, Uber vs. taxies. These are all examples of disruptive creation. They reflect a clear win-lose situation for industry players and they all impose painful adjustment costs on society in terms of lost jobs, even as consumers win big time. 

Now consider 23andMe, which created a brand new market of direct to consumer genetic testing allowing customers to send in a saliva sample to find their long-lost or previously unknown blood relatives, understand their ancestry and learn about their genetic predisposition to diseases such as Alzheimers, Parkinson's, Glaucoma or Celiac. Previously, most people had no feasible way of knowing their predispositions. The company is now valued at more than $1 Billion. Yet it did not disrupt any existing businesses or industries. 

Or think about Sesame Street, that introduced us to Elmo, Big Bird and the adorable Cookie Monstor and started by teaching preschool children how to count, name their colors and shapes and recognize the letters of the alphabet. it makes learning fun, and amuses as it educates the very young. Sesame Street did not displace preschools, libraries or even parents reading bedtime stories to their children. Rather it created a brand-new opportunity for children and learning by unlocking the nondisruptive market of preschool edutainment that for the most part had not existed before. Today preschool edutainment is a multibillion dollar industry, and Sesame Street has become the most successful, longest-running children's television show in history.

Now think of microfinance. Some forty years ago that industry did not exist, but today it is a multibillion dollar industry. Microfinance has helped change the lives of many of the world's extremely poor, essentially ushering in the end of a long era of financial apartheid for people living on less than a few dollars a day. With income so low, no bank or financial institution existed to cater to the credit needs of these people. Conventional banks had simply ignored the poor and deemed them unsuitable as borrowers. Grameen Bank in Bangladesh changed that in 1983 by lending tiny sums of money to the poor and essentially starting the microcredit. This nondisruptive move created the new market of microfinance Microfinance has since ballooned into a multibillion-dollar industry with a staggering 98 percent loan repayment rate and plenty of room for future growth. 

So how can executives apply the principles of nondisruptive creation to their own businesses? It is about leading with the right perspective, systematically identifying and realizing nondisruptive opportunities and building a future togeher. The second part of the book provides guidance and tools on how to do this.