By Andrew P. McCoy and Fred Sargent
Published On October 15, 2022
In the service and maintenance segment of electrical contracting, opportunities in emerging markets are not hard to find. After all, by definition, “emerging” means that they are on the rise and in plain view.
On the other hand, threats from emerging competition are generally more difficult to detect. Would-be competitors might, for example, seek an entree into a commercial customer’s decision-making through a different door than the one that the electrical contractor is accustomed to entering.
Introducing a novel theory of competition in 1997, Harvard professor Clayton Christensen granted a new connotation to the word “disruptive.” So much so that for years, it has unendingly made its way into business publications, convention talks and, of course, pitch pieces for startup companies looking for venture capital investment.
In one of the most celebrated business books, “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” Christensen showed many examples of what he called “disruptive innovation.” In a construction-related example, he retold the history of hydraulic excavating equipment and how it replaced steam shovels (and put many steam shovel manufacturers out of business).
Thanks to everyone’s adopted belief in “disruption,” we have for many years anticipated that our greatest threat would come from competitors undercutting our prices with a substandard product that customers would come to accept (and perhaps simply come to expect).
But we may be in for a surprise. We may have been looking in the wrong direction.