Deck 6: Disruptive Technologies: Understanding the Giant Killers and Considerations for Avoiding Extinction

Question 1

An option is a right and an obligation to make an investment.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

ARM is one of the only firms, aside from Intel, that has scale allowing it to own and operate its own fabs.

Answer 2

False .

Question 3

Disruptive innovations don't need to perform better than incumbents they simply need to perform well enough to appeal to their customers (and often do so at a lower price).

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Firms might not want to use ARM chips because they are incompatible with Intel chips.

Question 5

ARM provides logic in the majority of smartphones, including products by Apple and Samsung.

Question 6

Identifying and nurturing potentially disruptive technologies requires constant vigilance and relentless and broad environmental scanning.

Question 7

Intuit has avoided disruption in the shift away from packaged software by developing products that leverage cloud computing, some of which are initially provided for free.

Question 8

Which of the following is a way to recognize potentially disruptive innovations?

A) Pay attention to slow-expensive advancements in technology.
B) Seeking the opinions of venture capitalists, research academics, and passionate internal engineering staff.
C) Become more consumer-focused.
D) Indulge in bottom-line obsession.
E) Increase conversation within same product groups.

Question 9

Profit margins for disruptive innovations are usually worse than those for incumbent technologies.

Question 10

Microsoft's purchase of Nokia to influence the mobile market was well worth the $7.2 billion price tag.

Question 11

At the dawn of commercial mobile phone technology AT&T hired storied consulting firm McKinsey & Company to forecast US cellphone use.

Question 12

Why do big firms fail to see disruptive technologies as a threat?

Question 13

Many disruptive firms were started by former employees of the disrupted giants.

Question 14

Big firms fail to see disruptive innovations as a threat because:

A) they primarily focus on the bottom line.
B) they fail to listen to customer needs.
C) they overestimate the impact of these innovations.
D) they don't indulge in playing catch-up.
E) they concentrate only on future financial performance.

Question 15

What are the characteristics of disruptive technologies? Give an example of disruptive technology.

Question 16

Yahoo!'s mobile team didn't have an executive champion to protect and nurture the team during the pioneering phase when financial results couldn't be realized. It couldn't show substantial results, so managers were reassigned. This is an example of:

A) social engineering
B) the Creosote Bush effect
C) overspending on unproven projects
D) the options portfolio of innovation

Question 17

Firms may want to use ARM chips because they draw less power than Intel chips.

Question 18

The acronym VoIP is considered by many to be a disruptive innovation. It refers to:

A) The technology used in internet telephony
B) Cloud computing
C) Semiconductor manufacturing technology
D) DWDM

Question 19

Which of the following is true of disruptive technologies?

A) The tech industry is the least fertile ground for disruptive technologies.
B) Initially underperforming incumbents, over time their performance attributes improve to the point where they invade established markets.
C) They come to market with a set of performance attributes that existing customers have demanded.
D) Disruptive technologies and disruptive innovations are independent concepts.
E) The term disruptive technologies is a simple one because few technologies are able to create market shocks and catalyze growth.

Question 20

Firms that listen to existing customers and tailor offerings based on this input are far more likely to identify potentially disruptive technologies than those that experiment with products that existing customers do not demand.

Question 21

Incentives for U.S. consumer adoption of bitcoin are quite high.

Question 22

Those early customers for a disruptive technology are part of a different "___________________" than anything addressed by incumbent market leaders.

Question 23

Individuals known as ____________ participate in verifying and maintaining transactions and are occasionally awarded for their efforts through the receipt of bitcoins.

Question 24

Disruptive technology is also called disruptive _____.

Question 25

List and briefly discuss current concerns that are limiting the adoption of bitcoin.
While international remittance customers and those otherwise left out of the banking and credit card system can see immediate benefit from bitcoin, most of the population isn't impacted by this market.
Bitcoin is tech that offers little benefit
Bitcoin also has a , since it is a currency favored by the online underworld and was created by a mysterious, unknown entity referred to as Satoshi Nakamoto.
also pose a problem. High profile hacks, such as the Mt. Gox breach, create a public perception that bitcoin is unsafe.
Government regulations also remain uncertain in many regions of the world.
The currency is highly volatile, fluctuating wildly in relation to major world currencies.
The initial bitcoin support network does not allow for anywhere near the transaction volume of competing systems like global credit card networks.

Question 26

Like most open-source efforts, bitcoin was created by a consortium of for-profit corporations hoping to fuel adoption of a beneficial new standard.

Question 27

Bitcoin transactions are recorded in a public ledger known as the bitcoin wallet.

Question 28

Cross-border bank transfers are not likely to adopt bitcoin since these functions are already electronic and highly automated.

Question 29

Bitcoin transctions are recorded in a public ledger known as the ____________.

Question 30

As of 2017, bitcoin's highest daily transaction volume was approximately_____________.
a. 336
b. 36,000
c. 3.6 million
d. 336,000
e. none of the above

Question 31

List the benefits of bitcoin along with possible markets for early adoption.

Question 32

Why can't big firms simply wait until disruptive innovations prove themselves before they invest in these new areas?

Question 33

One way the package software firm, Intuit has approached the future and avoided disruptive innovation was to ______________.

Question 34

Facebook was famously late to the mobile revolution and felt forced to make billion and multi-billion purchases for __________________ and ___________________, even as SnapChat rises as a threatening rival.

Question 35

Chips based on designs from the firm ___________________ dominate the market for smartphones, but they are not compatible with the most popular instruction set used in Intel's desktop and laptop chips. They do, however, draw far less power than Intel chips.

Question 36

Getting rid of card companies cuts out ____________, which can top 3 percent. Overstock.com was one of the first large online retailers to accept bitcoin.

Question 37

_____ is a right, but not the obligation to make an investment.

Question 38

Low-margin retailers are interested in bitcoin because it may allow the elimination of fees associated with credit card transactions.