---
description: Shapiro extends Christensen beyond internal blindness -- regulations contracts business models and culture form around incumbents and persist long after underlying dynamics have changed
type: claim
domain: teleological-economics
created: 2026-02-21
source: "Doug Shapiro, 'What Clay Christensen Missed' and 'A False Sense of Stability', The Mediator (Substack)"
confidence: likely
tradition: "media disruption analysis, Christensen disruption theory"
---

# incumbents fail to respond to visible disruption because external structures lag even when executives see the threat clearly

Doug Shapiro's central critique of Christensen: The Innovator's Dilemma implied that companies get disrupted because they do not see it coming, but that is often not how it works. Shapiro watched Time Warner and the broader TV industry get disrupted over about a decade as Chief Strategy Officer at Turner/WarnerMedia, with many executives fully aware of what was happening. The hardest part of disruption is not the failure to perceive the threat -- it is the inability to respond even when you see it. Beyond the internal constraints Christensen identified, there is a less appreciated dimension: external structures that form around a business, industry, or ecosystem lag too. These include regulations, institutional practices, business models, legal and contractual frameworks, and even language and culture. These external structures are "like the water -- if you are immersed in them, you won't question their underlying logic." The inertia in these structures masks the change roiling under the surface and creates a "false sense of stability."

Shapiro identifies five factors that determine the speed and extent of disruption: the hurdles for the new entrant to move upmarket, the hurdles to consumer adoption of the new entrant's product, the degree to which the new entrant changes consumers' definition of quality, the size and persistence of the high end of the market, and the ease for the incumbent to replicate the new entrant's business model. These factors explain why disruption speed varies widely across industries and why industries can be disrupted more than once. He also highlights general purpose technologies (GPTs) as the characteristics of the most disruptive innovations -- technologies that reshape multiple industries simultaneously rather than just one.

This extends [[three types of organizational inertia -- routine cultural and proxy -- each resist adaptation through different mechanisms and require different remedies]] by adding a fourth dimension: external structural inertia that is not under the firm's control at all. Even if a company overcomes its own routine, cultural, and proxy inertia, it still faces regulatory frameworks, contractual obligations, industry standards, and cultural expectations that were built for the old world. This is why [[proxy inertia is the most reliable predictor of incumbent failure because current profitability rationally discourages pursuit of viable futures]] understates the problem -- even when proxy inertia is recognized, the external structures make response nearly impossible. Shapiro notes that incumbent success stories in the face of disruption are "few and far between" three decades after Christensen first published, which suggests the structural barriers are even more formidable than the internal ones.

The external structural lag concept strengthens the predictive power of [[riding waves of change requires anticipating the attractor state and positioning before incumbents respond through their predictable inertia]]. Incumbents are even more predictable than Christensen suggested because they face not just internal incentive misalignment but external structural constraints that persist even when leadership changes. This makes the timing window for disruptors wider and more reliable than pure innovator's dilemma analysis would suggest. When [[UnitedHealth and Humana exhibit textbook proxy inertia where coding arbitrage profits rationally prevent pursuit of purpose-built care delivery]], they also face a regulatory and contractual structure (CMS payment models, provider networks, state-by-state licensure) that was built for fee-for-service insurance, not value-based care delivery.

---

Relevant Notes:
- [[three types of organizational inertia -- routine cultural and proxy -- each resist adaptation through different mechanisms and require different remedies]] -- Shapiro adds external structural inertia as a fourth dimension beyond the firm's control
- [[proxy inertia is the most reliable predictor of incumbent failure because current profitability rationally discourages pursuit of viable futures]] -- external structures make response impossible even when proxy inertia is recognized
- [[riding waves of change requires anticipating the attractor state and positioning before incumbents respond through their predictable inertia]] -- external structural lag makes incumbents even more predictable than internal analysis suggests
- [[UnitedHealth and Humana exhibit textbook proxy inertia where coding arbitrage profits rationally prevent pursuit of purpose-built care delivery]] -- external regulatory and contractual structures compound internal proxy inertia in healthcare
- [[good management causes disruption because rational resource allocation systematically favors sustaining innovation over disruptive opportunities]] -- Shapiro's extension: the problem is not just rational resource allocation but structural inability to respond

Topics:
- [[competitive advantage and moats]]