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

Question 1

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

Answer 1

True

Question 2

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 2

True

Question 3

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.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

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

Question 5

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 6

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

Question 7

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

Question 8

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 9

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 10

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

Question 11

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 12

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 13

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

Question 14

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

Question 15

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

Question 16

The acronym VoIP is considered by many to be a disruptive innovation. It refers to:
A) The technology used in internet telephony

A) Moderate
B) Cloud computing
C) Semiconductor manufacturing technology
D) DWDM

Question 17

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

Question 18

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

Question 19

Disruptive technology is also called disruptive _____.

Question 20

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

Question 21

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

Question 22

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

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

Which of the following is true about bitcoin?

A) In its current state, bitcoin can only process a fraction of transactions of traditional credit card companies.
B) The grid-based, peer-produced verification network means bitcoin is as capable at processing transactions as even the largest credit card networks.
C) Users transferring funds across border are likely to consider bitcoin beneficial because it has the potential to dramatically lower transaction fees.
D) Despite the hype, there are no online retailers who current accept bitcoin, although this may change, soon.
E) A and C are true. f. B and C are true.
G) A, C, and D are true.
H) B, C, and D are true.

Question 25

A(n) _____ is a right, but not the obligation to make an investment.

Question 26

List and briefly discuss current concerns that are limiting the adoption of bitcoin.

Question 27

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

Question 28

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

Question 29

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 30

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 31

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 32

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

Question 33

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 34

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