What we can learn from disruptive innovation in Asia – Board of Innovation

The idea of disruptive innovation stepped into the spotlight in the 90s. The term was used to talk about smaller companies that out-competed bigger, established ones. While older businesses added unnecessary features and increased the price tag on their products, disruptive organizations offered just enough features, making their products more affordable. 

Today, disruptive innovation is a byword for businesses and technologies that become extremely popular among end-users and change a market as we know it. But, as time went by, disruptiveness began to have more than one meaning.

Many businesses today are conceived as disruptive, while in fact they’re doing something different. Understanding what disruptive innovation truly means, and separating it from similar types of business models could be the factor that turns your idea into the next market-changing concept. 

A good example of Asian disruptive innovation is Stashaway. Before this was available, retail micro investors in Asia had a rough time investing their money in high networth assets. They needed a strong strategy that didn’t require large sums of money or complex investment plans.

Based in Singapore, the founders of Stashaway knew robo-advising was becoming common in the US, and recognized the potential to bring it into the Asian market. They didn’t have to create a new technology, they just needed a new business plan that would make investing more accessible to the average consumer. 

Incorporating existing technology into a new business plan, Stashaway creators began to offer retail investors a reliable investment hassle-free plan. After 4 years of operations, the company had raised $61 million in funding and expanded from Singapore into four other regional markets.

Despite seeming more complex because of how it ties to technology development, radical innovation business models stay the same, or don’t undergo big changes as disruptive innovation models do. Radical investment is mostly focused on R&D to implement technologies that will reposition a business through competitive advantage.

Radical innovation through technology expanded into more than a single space, and it was done by offering new technical capabilities, creating immediate impact and changing the world’s expectations in the long run.