Disrupting Distruptive Technologies

I recently had a chance to investigate an interesting product concept that has the potential to significantly change the way some systems are cooled.  The term "disruptive" came to mind and that caused me to think about "disruptive technologies" and what it sometimes takes to bring them to fruition.

It seems that there are factors that stand in the way of rapid commercialization of products that have the potential to truly change an industry.

Fear....a technology or product that can disrupt an industry will tend to be resisted by the incumbents in that industry.  The greater their current investment in their current technology the harder they will push back against the new technology.  The fear of losing their market to the "upstart" will either lead to: trying to ignore it and hope it goes away; or actively looking for weaknesses and promoting heavily against it.  In the HVAC industry, and many others, the "upstart" is usually a small company without the staying power to eventually convince an incumbent company to take a chance on their technology.  Eventually, the "upstart" does actually go away from lack of resources to sustain the fight.

Liability...in order for a new product to see the light of day in the construction industry, in particular, it must be specified or recommended by consultants or owner influencers.  Consultants, especially, pay large premiums for professional "errors and omissions" insurance.  The definition of "errors" extends beyond simply making a mistake in a calculation to failure to use "industry standard" practices.  Since most disruptive technologies do not come to the market with vast installed bases that would begin to qualify them as an "industry standard" practice, consultants will shy away from specifying them.

Collateral consequences....sometimes the technology can be proven in laboratory or field trial cases successfully but widespread adoption requires the participation of other industries and their decision makers.  If the new technology requires an unrelated industry to make significant changes to how they do business, or design their products, the disruptive technology could end up stillborn due to the actions...or inactions...of companies outside of their own industry.

Finally...communication...by their nature disruptive technologies are technologies that others have not considered or visualized.  If the inventor of the new thing and the team behind it cannot clearly and demonstrably communicate the value of the product then it will either go nowhere or take an extremely long time to find acceptance.  In Mestex' participation as a sponsor of a National Science Foundation research consortium we see this almost every month.  Teams of extremely bright young engineers and scientists work diligently to come up with the "next big thing" but fail to communicate the value to companies that could commercialize the idea...if they only understood it clearly.

It is often said that the construction industry has been the slowest to adopt new techniques and is among the least efficient industries.  Perhaps the ideas to change that are already incubating or being tested...but fear, collateral consequences, and communication are standing in the way.