The term “disruptive technologies” frightens many organizations, but to companies like Alibaba, Uber, Airbnb and Facebook, it’s the secret to their success. These four companies from unrelated industries have one major commonality: They don’t “own” anything, at least not in the traditional sense. What they provide is a digital service, and these service offerings have transformed their respective industries.

These companies exemplify disruptive technologies because they each identified a way to meet a consumer need that was outside of their industry’s traditional activities (i.e. value chain), or delivered services in a new way. For example, with Uber, instead of hailing a cab you simply punch a few keys on your mobile device and a car is waiting for you by the time you exit your building.

“The value chain is evolving into a complex value fabric of partners – a series of eco-systems”, said Nik Willetts, Deputy Chief of TM Forum, the international, non-profit communications industry association. Sitting in this presentation at TM Forum Action Week, it was easy to see that communications service providers (CSPs) need to recognize the digital transformation taking place in their industry — and take active steps to influence the evolving value chain with more consumer services and better customer experiences.

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