Based on 6 years of research, Harvard Business School professor Thales Teixeira displays how and just why industries are disrupted, and what established companies can do to respond–as very well as what potential startups must get good at if they hope to gain a competitive edge.

As it works out, there’s a design to disruption in an industry, if the disruptor is Uber, Airbnb, or a dozen other startups that have shaken up incumbents and threatened the position quo.

For disruptors to cause a threat to an about Unlocking the client Value Chain: How Decoupling Drives Customer Disruption industry, they need to successfully break the link in choosing, purchasing, or consuming something or assistance. Upstarts, Teixeira displays, do not make an effort to contend with or overtake a reigning incumbent organization entirely. Rather, they work to peel apart a portion of the consumer decision-making process, just how Birchbox offered women a new way to sample new beauty products from a number of beauty products and fragrance companies, and never have to go to the Revlon or Estee Lauder shop. Zipcar doesn’t try to compete head to head with GM but rather to offer individuals who need transportation an alternative way to bypass, without owning a car themselves, or becoming responsible for gasoline, maintenance, or insurance.

Within a penetrating narrative filled up with case research and stories, Teixeira shows us how startups successfully disrupt industries–and what market leaders should do to avoid becoming disrupted and protect their area.

Includes a reward PDF of numbers and tables