Prelims

Half Title Page

The Philosophy of Disruption

Title Page

The Philosophy of Disruption: From Transition to Transformational Change

by

Alexander Manu

OCAD University, Canada

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2022

Copyright © 2022 Alexander Manu.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

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ISBN: 978-1-80262-850-0 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80262-849-4 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80262-851-7 (Epub)

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my mentors who became friends and friends who became mentors: Kenji Ekuan, Robert Blaich, Dieter Rams, Gianfranco Zaccai and Jens Bernsen,

forever grateful.

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

I have had the pleasure of working with some fantastic students, corporations and collaborators throughout my career, continually inspiring me to pursue my curiosity and spirit. This book is part of that journey, as well as a new destination and a source of awareness, inspiration and possibility for all of us.

I want to thank my research assistant Jessica Avery Black for her significant contributions. She generously shared her insight, skills, talents and passion with me to complete this book. Victoria Biglands has been of great help in editing and styling this book, and I am very grateful for her intellectual rigour, attention to detail and inspired suggestions. Thanks to Fiona Allison and all at Emerald for their passion for excellence and gracious professionalism.

I want to say a special thank you to all the companies and individuals who have accepted my ideas and methods over the years and for transforming them into the reality of everyday experiences. Without you, I would not have the joy of making a difference. Finally, deep gratitude to my wonderful family, who have afforded me much support.

Toronto, 2 January 2022

Preface

As the true beginning of the mobile revolution, June 2007 marked the arrival of the iPhone. The iPhone changed everything: it put the Internet in everyone's pocket; it transformed photography from a hobby into an act of everyday life; it changed how software was created and distributed; it introduced developer-driven apps that changed everything from how people shop, how they travel to how they entertain or get the news; it transformed the advertising industry through mobile ads and made Apple the world's most valuable company. ¹

Nevertheless, many analysts missed the significance of this transformation spectacularly. Under the headline ‘Apple iPhone Debut to Flop, Product to Crash in Flames’, one such pundit proclaimed in 2007 that: ‘The iPhone is going to fail because its design is fundamentally flawed’. ² He was not alone. Other headlines included definitive statements such as ‘We predict the iPhone will bomb’. ³ and ‘Why the Apple phone will fail and fail badly’. ⁴

How could such a radical disruption to the market dynamics be so critically misjudged? Most commentators discounted that Apple changed the rules of the phone game entirely and that Apple was building something fundamentally different. Very few did see that the disruptor was not technical but predominantly cultural. The iPhone disrupted the market by first defining the category for itself and then challenging the notion of what was valuable about a technology product.

The iPhone transformed expectations; it was the first generation of software and hardware that changed our lives. In doing so, Apple disrupted the perception of value, challenging individuals philosophically. Such challenge to the basis of one's knowledge can result in an intellectual tunnel, a place of comfort where bias anchors one into the status quo. It becomes easy to reject the vision of the iPhone, its boldness and its new way of engaging people with technology in everyday life. Such critics looked at the iPhone as an everyday product instead of understanding it as a cultural signal. Apple's engineers and designers have created a philosophy, an artistic endeavour that has unapologetically transformed our lives.

New technology demands thinking differently. It challenges us philosophically, and when we are challenged, we question the way we think. New technology presents a path to testing our abilities to explore the limits of what is possible. New technologies have a unique way of disrupting social systems, changing the foundations of society and transforming values. Social change rarely occurs just by passing legislation. Social change requires a disruption of the prevailing social order, and disruption occurs only when the perception of the foundational value system of a society is changed to a new, more effective value system.

We have learned through lived experience that technology is inherently disruptive and that humans are also inherently disruptive. Disruptive technologies make possible a new form of human connection, and the proof is in the social media platforms that have disrupted the traditional distribution of power within societies on every continent of the world. The net result is an efficient and effective mechanism for social change.