Risks

From the standpoint of the disruptor, the greatest risks include:

• Plugging a technology-driven innovation into an existing business model. A disruptive technology deserves an equally disruptive business model that captures the full value and potential of the disruptive technology.
  
• Underestimating the difficulty of validating a new business model. 

From the standpoint of the incumbent, the greatest risks include:

• Failing to recognize when you are at a Ground Zero.
• Rationalizing that the innovation is not disruptive.
• Falling to realize that once you recognize the threat, you are already months or years behind the disruptor.  
  
• Losing your best people (often to your disruptive competitor) as they perceive that the ship is sinking. This is a sure sign the organization has lost faith in management, the company and the future of the incumbent business model.
  

Opportunities

From the standpoint of the disruptor, opportunities include:

• Redefining the entire basis of competitive success and winning the future.
  
• Staying ahead of the curve of fast business model life cycles by creating a culture of ongoing technical and business model innovation.
  

From the standpoint of the incumbent, the opportunities include:

• Collaborating with third parties who can help counter the threat through fast iteration and fast learning cycles outside the company's organization during the early Inception and validation stages.
• Using its resources to delay or minimize the damage to existing business while pursuing a strategy to counter the disruption.
• Leveraging its proven ability to ramp-and-run with an innovative product or model to move very quickly once it has identified its own counter to a disruptive threat.