The Role of Infrastructure

Industry structure includes vendors, suppliers, partners, competitors and customers. When a new technology is introduced, there are few customers, and potentially very few partners and competitors.

In this situation, an innovator needs to provide an end-to-end solution to customers, including training, installation, service and repair, custom application building, and support.

Some industries can piggy-back on existing infrastructure. For example, eLearning can build on the existing Internet infrastructure. Other industries have to create and install an expensive infrastructure. The wireless industry faces this challenge.

In order to grow the industry, innovators need to seed the market for partners and suppliers. This requires skilled leadership and a strategy that takes into account the nature of disruptive innovation. Building the industry infrastructure is necessary; no single innovator can provide the entire solution AND grow the industry.