Most people attribute business disruption to technology, thinking of the iPhone, 3D printing, robotics, and artificial intelligence. However, technology alone does not cause disruption. The iPhone didn’t succeed because of its technology; it succeeded because it met customer needs better than any other product at the time did.

If we’re all driving electric cars in five years, we will point to Tesla’s technology as disruptive—yet the electric car was invented in 1837. Electric car technology was not disruptive in 1839 or even in 1939 because customers didn’t want it then. But even if they are subconscious at times, customer needs and demands change, and those changes are the real source of disruption.

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