Every 
now and then, a product or business comes along that manages to shift a paradigm, completely changing the way consumers interact with goods and services. Such disruption, though, often comes at the expense of established businesses — and even entire industries.
Apple is arguably the leader in disruption, having completely reshaped the music world with the iPod, led the consumer transition to smartphones with the iPhone and dinged the laptop computer industry with the iPad.
Disruption is an enticing and 
popular buzzword these days.
Every year, hundreds of start-ups venture forth, hoping their Quixotic efforts to change how an industry operates will bear fruit. Most fail, often because they’re either ignorant to several realities or choose to simply ignore them.
The truth is: Bringing about disruption is incredibly hard. And it takes an especially driven type of entrepreneur, a lot of money and even more luck and the ability to clear some pretty big hurdles.
You never see disruption coming. Often 
you don’t even realize when you’re in the middle of it.
The banking crisis of the last few years has certainly changed the way people think about their money, but even before that things were starting to change. Some people believe at this point conditions are ripe for a full-scale paradigm shift in the way consumers spend and save money.
It takes a lot to shift the course of an 
industry. For every truly disruptive company, there are dozens that try and fail – and plenty of copycats that follow, but fall short of the new model.
Being disruptive doesn’t always mean being first to the market with an idea. It’s about executing it better than any competitor – and staying ahead of the curve from there.
The entertainment industry doesn’t 
always handle disruption well.
When digital storage and distribution hit the music industry, labels ferociously resisted the move, suffering tremendous losses as a result.
Chris Morris: Journalist 