Disruption in distribution in the travel industry – challenging the status quo

By Martin Warner

"A disruptive innovation is an innovation that creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market leading firms, products and alliances." The term was defined and the phenomenon analysed by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton M. Christensen beginning in 1995. Since then, the term has become the standard euphemism for any supplier who has a desire to change the status quo to their sole advantage.