Leadership, Enterpreneurship and Innovation
Disruptive innovation is a term devised by Clayton M. Christensen in 1997 and explored further in 2005 in his book ‘The Innovator’s Dilemma’ (Christensen, 2015). There are many different definitions of the term, but his founder describes it as a process by which a product or service enters a market at the bottom level and moves upmarket, surpassing the majority of the competitors. Schmidt and Druehl (2016) define disruptive innovation as the advances in technologies and innovations that make expensive products and services more affordable and reachable to the market. In the United Kingdom, Netflix and Depop are disruptive innovators that have transformed access to services in the public sector.
Depop is a peer-to-peer social shopping application that allows individuals to sell their items efficiently (Heilingloh, 2021). Depop has offered consumers great convenience and flexibility in shopping. Additionally, it lets users upload pictures of products they want to sell by creating feeds (Lennox, 2020). On the other hand, Netflix is a disruptive innovation that has transformed how individuals stream films, documentaries, and original series (Hansen, 2017). It is an online subscription-based streaming service that allows consumers to stream films, documentaries, and original series and TV shows at the comfort of their smartphones. Netflix and Depop were dedicated to further enhancing delivery to the purchasers by exploiting their competitors’ weaknesses. The two companies are innovators committed to taking risks (Hansen, 2017). This report outlines the features of Netflix and Depop as disruptive innovators.
Netflix allows users to access television shows, documentaries, and movies on personal devices worldwide. It uses a U-form (unitary) organizational structure to maintain control throughout the company (Retaul, Tisch, & Zamborsky, 2018). This organizational structure influences the employees of Netflix to be more responsive to their duties (Zotov, 2021). Additionally, Netflix can evolve continually to offer original content in high demand through the unitary organization structure that attracts targeted consumers globally. Netflix‘s mission is “to entertain the world “(Netflix, 2021). The company adheres to its mission by providing on-demand streaming services on an international operating scale.
Furthermore, Netflix has made its services affordable and accessible globally to entertain customers. Netflix‘s services include; movies, animations, television shows, and documentaries on internet-enabled devices. Netflix disrupted the existing competition by offering affordable, convenient, and accessible services to underserved customers through online video streaming. The previous entertainment service in mail DVD did not have a convenient payment method and Netflix used this gap to disrupt Hulu, DIRECTV, and TiVo, because they overlooked the areas Netflix disrupted; furthermore, the services in the sectors disrupted were expensive.
Depop is a United Kingdom-based social shopping platform that transformed online sales and purchases. It emerged as a mobile-centric marketplace that allows consumers to sell second-hand items, send messages and, follow each other online through their third-party social feeds and create a community of business (Heilingloh, 2021). Depop uses a decentralized organizational structure to enhance innovation and flexibility. Depop‘s mission is “to build the world’s most progressive and diverse home for fashion; a place to explore unique fashion and be part of a community-driven zeitgeist that’s shaping culture for the better” (Depop, 2021).
Moreover, Depop disrupted the existing competitors such as eBay by creating feeds and allowing customers to interact on a peer-to-peer social app. Companies like eBay only enable consumers to sell their items without making feeds. Consequently, Depop disrupted eBay’s business model by creating a personalized experience for customers to inbox and follow each other on an online shopping community. Unlike the existing competitors, Depop offered convenience to the customers by creating search feeds for the items of interest (Heilingloh, 2021). Building a peer-to-peer social app disrupted the existing competitors by enhancing flexibility and user-friendliness. Depop transformed the customer interactions during the sale and purchase of second-hand items (Rendel, 2021). Netflix and Depop have flat organizational structures that enhance innovation and flexibility in serving the customers. Centralized systems potentially hinder innovation because it limits the exchange of ideas.
Dependence on advanced technologies, innovations, affordability, availability, serving small customer segments, targeting the low-end market, and displacement of long-standing film companies qualify Netflix as a disruptive innovator (Hansen, 2017; Aversa, Haefliger, & Reza, 2017). Netflix took advantage of the internet to provide global television and movie streaming services. Innovative technology augmented Netflix‘s global expansion by shifting from traditional television formatting into online streaming (Hansen, 2017). Netflix‘s innovativeness identifies the company as a disruptive that has appealed to customers globally. A strong urge drove Netflix for instant satisfaction and strict schedules (Netflix, 2021). Consequently, Netflix generated value for users by enhancing the access to readily available content on internet-connected devices.
The current contenders, such as Hulu, had failed to make their content affordable and easily accessible in today’s fast-paced society. Netflix provides low-cost subscription-based services that are affordable and accessible to customers globally. Netflix targeted consumers interested in TV shows and movies but not necessarily interested in new releases that formed a small market and later provided customized products that covered a much bigger market (Rakic, 2020). It targeted low-end customers globally who could not afford the premium television streaming services (Arena, 2018). For these reasons, Netflix is a perfect example of a disruptive innovator that continues to grow while leaving behind competitors. Netflix‘s vision statement demonstrates the company’s commitment to transforming the internet entertainment era.
The technology gap served as the opportunity for Depop to create Instagram’s interface, thereby transforming the fashion industry. The company allows customers to follow each other, explore second-hand items, and place orders for convenience (Eaves, 2020). Depop created the Style Wizard that creates a personalized experience for customers while promoting interactions (Heilingloh, 2021). The Style Wizard tool allows customers to make sustainable fashion choices. Affordability is one of Depop‘s main focuses since the attention is on second-hand clothes. Depop targets low-end customers who cannot afford new clothes in the market (Eaves, 2020). The company disrupted the companies such as eBay who had failed to create personalized customer interfaces. Depop primarily sells second-hand clothes conveniently while allowing customers to search for their preferred brands, colours, and sizes. It also enables customers to place orders in the newsreel and negotiate with potential sellers (Rendel, 2021).
Although Depop has not displaced the existing competitors, it still commands a significant market share. The company’s application reached 1.8 million downloads in 2014, three years after being founded, and ‘the company currently sees well over a million new products added for sale each month’ (Rendel, 2021). Depop is an innovative disruptor that seeks to create a personalized shopping experience for customers through user-friendly interfaces that allow for interactions and aims to create a diverse home for fashion all across the globe as an innovative disruptor that continues to evolve and utilize technology to refine service delivery. Both Netflix and Depop share the same features because they focus on providing affordable services to the customers. Further, both companies focus on the provision of personalized services to customers.
