Unmasking The Innovation Ecosystem: Disruptive Water Technologies
As sector leaders address major water challenges and impediments that hamper innovation and efficiency-focused strategies, water tech companies throughout the world continue to develop and tee up their disruptive and cutting-edge technologies.
Disruptive water technologies are displacing incumbents' technologies and helping companies to create high growth markets within mature markets, above average profit margins, and a sustainable first mover advantage.
Growing Interest in Solutions and New Business Models
A recent white paper from Ernst & Young that summarizes in-depth interviews with industry leaders reports that there is a growing interest in proven solutions, business model innovation and technological adaptation. This, coupled with long-term financing alternatives and harmonized policies and regulations, has the power to boost institutional and market efficiencies and favorably affect the long-term sustainability and growth of the sector.
"While there is this growing interest, acceptance, and applicability of novel and disruptive water technologies, and despite market growth constraints and other barriers, the industry has already adopted many disruptive innovations and continues to do so at a faster rate than it did 20 years ago," according to Paul O'Callaghan, CEO, BlueTech Research. Disruptive technologies can open up new market applications which did not previously exist, accelerate the pace of technology adoption, strengthen corporate growth, and drive regulatory activity.
"Differentiated products and services can displace incumbents' solutions in mature markets. Membrane bioreactor technology, for example, achieved market share in a crowded, commodity, fragmented, low margin market. Ultraviolet (UV) disinfection took market share from chlorine disinfection," O'Callaghan explains.
Technology Innovation Playing Field Expanding
"The playing field is expanding as larger water tech companies, corporations, and water utilities step up innovation and intrapreneurship, take a different approach to R&D, and identify internal champions to support the development of new products and technologies. O'Callaghan says that many large corporations not traditionally associated with water (e.g., BASF, Outotec, Johnson Matthey, Bilfinger, Lockheed Martin and Mann+Hummel) are complementing in-house innovation with acquisition of cutting-edge tech companies that are relevant to their business strategies and those that present technologies that sit further along the technology commercialization continuum.
To further speed innovation adoption and strengthen the water innovation ecosystem overall, Ernst & Young believes industry frameworks for assessing and adopting new technologies need to be established. "This would involve creating consortia to incubate, validate and promote new technologies and would reduce the need for emerging companies to undergo multiple field trials and encourage large utilities to set R&D budgets."
Why We Should Care About Disruptive Innovation
Disruptive innovation has the potential to change the world of water and the progression of the industry in many ways, some of which we have not even imagined. What we know now is that disruptive technologies can enhance the water industry's growth, efficiency, sustainability, and provide start-up and established companies with a distinct competitive market advantage and the right to breakthrough marketing and "leader of the pack" news headlines. That's good for all parties.
Who the CEO Calls, Donna Vincent Roa is a member of the Water Environment Federation and the Federal Water Quality Association and frequently writes on water issues. She is Managing Partner and Chief Strategist of Vincent Roa Group, a strategic business and science communication firm that helps organizations achieve excellence in high-stakes communication, position brand communication as a key enterprise asset, and maximize communication resources. She is also BlueTech Research's Vice President of Marketing & Communication.
BlueTech Research, a water technology market intelligence firm, uses a proprietary rating system to evaluate and categorize the disruptiveness of water technology innovations. The next disruptive technologies for the water industry, according to the company's market intelligence are: ceramic membranes, UV LED, supercritical water oxidation (SCWO), capacitive deionization (CapDI), and sludge pre-treatment.
The recent 2013 BlueTech Forum featured innovative and disruptive technologies of 11 companies in its BlueTech Showcase. Voltea took home the BlueTruffle™ Award for the best go-to-market strategy for its capacitive deionization technology that spans multiple billion dollars markets. The Disrupt-o-Meter™ Award went to Crystal IS for their highly-disruptive UV-LED technology.