The Disruptive Innovation is a theory that explains the changing phenomena that many industries have experienced over time. Anticipate what will happen in a Higher Education that for centuries has been the industry immune to changes. In this theory, Jeremy Abelson, Founder and Portfolio Manager of Irving Investors, a company investing in disruptive technology, explains how traditional and "successful" industries are challenged by new organizations that, through disruptive innovation, leveraged on new technologies, transform existing sectors. Creating new spaces of competition that exceed the expectations of traditional customers through simplicity, convenience, accessibility and affordability, where products or services traditionally used to be complicated, expensive and inaccessible.
According to Abelson, this theory has been applied and demonstrated in countless industries such as automotive and computing (from the days of the mainframe to laptops), in cell phones, etc. In principle, these types of products and services were intended for some “elites” and later they became more widespread due to the technological disruption applied by new providers that made them more convenient and accessible to the masses.
Higher education had not had a disruptive technology or a space for breaking. However, Covid-19 came to change the general course of history and is giving a touch of acceleration to the theory. Now education faces a new reality and perhaps some universities will suffer the failures of Kodak, Blockbuster, ToysRus, Sears, etc.
“Just as students are doing in their daily lives, universities should be looking for simplicity, convenience, accessibility and affordability, translate it into simple automation of academic and administrative processes, intuitive plug and play solutions, subscription payments, lower maintenance and support costs. And, on the other hand, the technological partners of the institutions should be focused on offering reasonable costs in customizations, simpler sales and consulting models, implementations oriented to business results and not to projects implemented on time and on budget,” says Jeremy Abelson.
Apparently, and without this being a statement, the companies that serve the higher education sector have established themselves in the same dynamic that has damaged so many industries in the different moments of crisis that the world has experienced: reactivity to change, inability to think about efficiencies, innovative disability and abuse of the comfort zone.
The times of Covid-19 and the new normality will have to show us if other forms of competition that are more agile and willing to meet the expectations and needs of new higher education players are on the way.
