eBay’s Team of Disruptive Innovators
Whenever I hear the term “disruptive innovation” I cringe. Notwithstanding the fact that many would say I cringe too easily, it nevertheless strikes me as term that arose ex post facto to describe a significant change rather than as a creative mandate.
Examples of generally accepted disrupters runs the gamut from the musket ( particularly disruptive if you are on the receiving end) to automobiles, PCs, the web, etc.. eBay can certainly be seen in this disruptive light in that it has profoundly changed the marketplace.
All well and good. But in almost every case I can think of, the disruption or the impact of any particular innovation wasn’t predictable, certainly by the standards of the time in which happened; it is rather only in retrospect that any innovation can be seen as truly revolutionary.
In other words, you just don’t memo all desks and proclaim that by week’s end, we’ll have a genuine, thigh-slapping disruptive innovation to announce….that is, of course, unless you trod among the khaki-klad of eBay’s recently proclaimed “Disruptive Innovation Team”
The Disruptive Innovation team was created with a specific purpose in mind: explore new concepts and create new tools to allow our 222 million buyers, sellers and developers to make better use of the eBay platform.
“…to boldly go where no man has gone before” just cries out to be inserted in right after “explore new concepts and create new tools” doesn’t it?
All in all a very butch attitude that will, I am sure, result in disruptive, tectonic-shifts in the march of civilization.
I feel much the same as you, I’m sure, huddled as we are in our primordial darkness waiting…hoping….praying that the resulting musket from our “team” doesn’t backfire.
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February 16th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
… and how many people are in this team of “innovators” ??
Me thinks eBay should place those members on core areas that still need improvement, like customer service for starters. There are a whole slew of other areas that eBay should be focusing on if they would only admit there’s a problem maybe they could get their heads out of their (ahem) !!!
It burns me up, how a company as large as eBay can get away with ignoring it’s members, or more accurately, understaff their departments so a response from any type of support takes two weeks.
Oh, and what about some sort of phone support ??? could any other company survive with out it? eBay has become so arrogant and naive that one day their king of the hill status will really be challenged and they’ll wonder how they got knocked off … wouldn’t that be a sight hahaha
Take care Michael . . . Scott
February 18th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
I can’t get too foamy at the mouth about this latest from eBay. Remove the term “disruptive innovation” from the equation and it’s just good old American research and development. In my opinion this is exactly the sort of thing that eBay *should* be devoting some of its excess cash to, rather than slapping together pale imitations of other sites and having them huddle under the eBay umbrella. You know these all too well, Michael, you’ve reported on a number of them.
So relax, guys. This is good news.
No, Scott, it’s not going to erase any of your gripes about the way eBay currently does business. But I gotta lay it on the table here: If you want eBay to listen to you, you need to be a large institutional shareholder. Sellers aren’t even considered eBay customers, did you hear? Buyers are.
fLufF
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