Touted as one of the ‘must read’ business books of the digital age, this is an important book, even though it does not quite meet the levels of hyperbole on the cover – “Everything you need from business school in one very direct book”. Instead, this book describes the nature of digital disruptors very well, particularly the economic and technology drivers and the impact they are having (both deliberate and accidental) upon incumbent players.
The authors prescribe a number of useful though hardly ground-breaking techniques for existing players, which boil down to, “keep your eyes open, be nimble, be prepared to scale rapidly and exit if necessary.” The term ‘Big Bang Disruption’ is however stretched beyond breaking point to cover examples that caused by other phenomena, rather than digital innovation – such as the commoditisation of hardware (as in TVs and PCs) and by rapid product cycles in the consumer electronics industry. When limited to the more specific cases of digital disruption, this book does indeed provide a useful guide.