The receptivity of the industry to innovation is a major determinant of whether the new ways will take hold, and the whether the start-up will succeed. Clearly, with some 50 maritime e-commerce sites out there, not all will make it. The industry is not asking for the sites, the sites are being pushed at the industry. Disruptive change My ideas were inspired by an article in the Harvard Business Review regarding disruptive change in corporations. The internet certainly qualifies when it comes to creating disruptive change in international shipping.
Many maritime entities have neither values nor processes to support new ways of doing business.
In a highly wired industry that can respond to innovation, such an advantage does indeed exist. However, in the maritime business, where the internet is viewed as disruptive, and where many companies do not have the processes to support integration of the internet into their processes, the first mover is often cursed, as history has demonstrated. The way the industry does business can shift, so that it is more in keeping with the way the internet works. As the processes and values of shipping's customers shift, the maritime industry must follow. This means that the internet will have a much less disruptive effect on the maritime industry.