Disruptive Technology: Ecton, Inc.
...ced by Ecton, Inc. is echocardiography machines that cardiologists use to create images of heart functions for diagnostic purposes. According to Cape (1998), Ecton’s Doppler echocardiography instrument is inexpensive, small, and portable. It is not able to create images as clear as the large and expensive instruments used in hospitals. Demanding customers would consider the innovation’s performance to be inadequate because Ecton’s echocardiography instruments cannot create images as clear as the large and expensive instruments such as the Sequoia by Acuson Corporation. Many very demanding consumers would prefer the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the high quality and very clear. These customers can be large hospitals, laboratories, and others that required the use of clear and high quality images and are able to afford these expensive instruments. On the other hand, a different customer group would be delighted to use the innovation – despite its limitations – because it allows them to do something that they couldn’t do effectively or affordably in the past. Small clinics can benefit a great deal from Ecton’s echocardiography instruments because they can afford it. This innovation will enable them to help diagnose many heart problems early. Early detection will save many lives. Ecton’s Doppler echocardiography instrument has a low degree of being potentially disruptive. Economy of scales is a major barrier of entry into the echocardiography market. According to Cape (1998), many of the nation’s leading cardiologists as well as popular institutions were already using other instruments. The echocardiography market was largely control by Hewlett Packard, 64% in 1996 (Cape, 1998). The other companies were Acuson (11%), ATL (9%), Toshiba (6%), Biosound (5%), and Vingmed (4%) (Cape, p. 48). Cape (1998) stated that: Due to the competitive but inertial nature of the ultrasound industry, most innovations in ultrasound were enhancements of existing, highly complex machines, in response to clinical demands to provide better quantitative information or to create images that hitherto had been available only from more expensive techniques such as MRI (p. 39). Ecton’s instrument fits Christensen’s model of being a low-end disruption - targets customers that have been overshot by the existing innovation. The small clinics just cannot afford the expensive ultrasound machines, but they can afford Ecton’s Doppler echocardiagraphy machine because it is very cheap. They cannot housed the big ultrasound machines at the small clinics, but they have room for the small, compact, and portable machines. Christensen’s recommendation applicable here is that Ecton’ Inc. needs to: “create new organizational structures within corporate boundaries in which new processes can be developed…” (Burgelman, 2004, p. 546). Ecton, Inc. is a new company with a new product which required new processes. Hence, Ecton should create new capabilities internally as suppose to externally. The company can position its technology to be most disruptive by keeping the price re...