Five industries under threat from creative destruction

A superb piece here from the Financial Times focuses on five industries where revenues, profits and jobs are under threat from creative destruction.

Disrupter: Online travel platforms

• Industry threatened: High-street travel agents
• Reason why: More travellers booking online

Disrupter: 3D (Additive) Printing

• Industry threatened: Small component manufacturers and distributors
• Reason why: Growing use of on-site 3D printing to make parts

Disrupter: Driverless cars

• Industry threatened: Motor insurers
• Reason why: Fewer vehicle collisions with increased use of driverless cars

Disrupter: ‘Robo-adviser’ websites

• Industry threatened: Financial advisers
• Reason why: Growth of automated financial advice websites and tougher regulation

Disrupter: Electric vehicles

• Industry threatened: Car repair garages
• Reason why: More drivers switching to low-maintenance electric cars

More here from the Harvard Business Review (September 2016)

The Businesses That Platforms Are Actually Disrupting

This is also worth reading: Mark Mardell (BBC) on The Rise of the Robots

If you want a contrasting perspective, in this video, Professor David Autor from MIT gives a TEDx talk on why technology has not made human labour obsolete: