ABSTRACT
Early synth pop duo Buggles were the first band to have their music played on MTV in 1981 with their song ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’. This became a defining moment in changing the way music was consumed and changed other music TV programming forever. The title of the song has never been truer in terms of its wider meaning for Darwinian change in business. Yet the notion of disruptive change is not exactly new. Canals in the 18th century, railways in the 19th, and fireplaces, have all played their parts in transforming our lives. Fritz Haber invented the Haber process for making ammonia for use as a fertiliser in 1908. Up to this point potassium nitrate (saltpetre) had been used. Almost overnight, ammonia replaced the need for saltpetre and allegedly trains full of saltpetre were left half-way en route to their destinations as the value of the chemical plummeted. More recently, Kodak, Blockbuster and Betamax all discovered the power of disruption to their peril. Satellite navigation devices were thought to be a standard addition to a car until Google Maps arrived and the market fell off a fiscal cliff edge.
