Disruptive innovation, a well-known business concept defined by Clayton Christensen, is changing. When he first defined this concept back in 1997, digital technologies already existed, but they were just beginning to make their impact on strategy and the process of disruption.

The concept of innovative disruption is generic, and we can apply it to any technology or business model, not just digital innovations. When a disruptive innovation that is simpler and less costly than the existing market standard appears, it forms a niche market that initially seems unappealing or trivial to the incumbent company and to investors, but that product will eventually redefine the industry. An obvious example is the tablet. Although Microsoft invented it, Apple managed to improve it and became the market leader, presenting a more convenient alternative to personal computers and laptops. Worldwide sales of personal computers based on Windows are declining today, while the sales of iOS and Android tablets are growing.

In the same way digital technologies affected competitive advantage, they have also altered the disruptive innovation process. Today more and more examples exist of companies that have ill interpreted the new digital technologies and are now part of history or fighting for existence. The lesson is simple: digital disruption is very painful — fast, deep, and detrimental. Consider these examples:

• Sony Walkman. Sony's famous innovative product surrendered to the iPod/iPhone revolution and has ceased to exist.

• Kodak. The leading global and innovative company in the area of photography for many years ill interpreted the technology of digital photography, which it actually invented. Japanese companies such as Nikon, Fuji, and Canon took the lead with the new technology and eventually disrupted Kodak's film processing business model. Kodak no longer exists in this industry. Incidentally, the Japanese companies now face the risk of disruption coming from smartphone cameras. Digital continues to create new opportunities, as seen by the success of GoPro (a small digital movie camera that made US $1 billion in revenue for 2013).

• Blockbuster. The primary DVD rental company, with thousands of branches and machines spread globally, could not compete with Netflix. Netflix cancelled late fee charges, improved the film selection process by using an advanced recommendation engine on its website, and enhanced customer experience by sending requested DVDs to homes via postal mail. In essence, Netflix joined the atoms and bits model, canceled out the space required for a storefront, and eventually used the Web as a store "space." Next, the company well positioned itself and quickly identified the trend of streaming content. Netflix soon modified its business model and is now one of the leaders in this area. Blockbuster has gone bankrupt.

• HMV and Tower Records. These two well-known music shops with many worldwide branches had to close their businesses after iTunes became the biggest music shop in the world.

• Borders. This leading bookstore chain did not react well to the digital transformation to e-books and e-readers. Instead, it kept its old business model and went bankrupt.

• Nokia. One of the most successful, leading, worldwide cellular vendors had to sell its mobile division to Microsoft due to the strategic mistake of ill interpreting the introduction of the iPhone and the quick shift to smartphones. It remains to be seen if Microsoft can succeed in the fierce competitive landscape of Android and iOS operating systems.

• BlackBerry. Once a dominant cellular vendor for business phone users, this company is now in free fall and unlikely to succeed in recovering from the iPhone/Android revolution.

• Motorola. The company that invented cellular technology and led the industry for some time has been sold to Google, mainly for its many patents. Google then sold the mobile device division to Lenovo.

• TomTom and Garmin. These two successful vendors of personal digital navigators lost their competitive position in a short period of time after iGO and Waze introduced their iOS and Android versions of navigation software. iGO itself had to change its business model after Waze came on the market as a free-of-charge navigation software, providing real-time navigation with social network capabilities.

We could go on and on with other examples, but we are sure that the message is clear: in today's digital age, the risk of "killer" disruption has grown significantly.

The concept of disruptive innovation is now evolving due to digital technologies. In his book Digital Disruption, James McQuivey describes how digital technologies have accelerated and changed the disruption processes. He claims that in every industry digital competitors are taking advantage of the new technologies, platforms, and tools to disrupt the usual way of doing business. "Digital disruption is not only a possibility for your company's future but the only possibility," he writes. McQuivey urges companies to change their mindset and start exploiting digital technologies because this is what their customers want. There is a new breed of competitors, which he calls "digital disruptors," that can come from anywhere and quickly disrupt your business. They can deliver value to customers at a lower cost, with faster development and deployment cycles, and with an improved customer experience.

Digital technologies have the power to disrupt your business and can do it at a pace never before experienced. In their book Big Bang Disruption, consultants Larry Downes and Paul Nunes claim that digital technologies can disrupt and devastate companies virtually overnight with a product or a service that is better and cheaper than one currently delivered by others. Small startups with few employees, minimal experience, and almost no capital can unravel your firm before you even begin to grasp what's happening. Just look at what WhatsApp with its 59 employees has done to the incumbent cellular operators, forcing them to erase billions of dollars from their SMS businesses. Facebook acquired WhatsApp and its 470 million customers for the unimaginable sum of $19 billion.

Some call this "Digital Darwinism," where slow companies just disappear, sometimes within years, sometimes within months, as they make space for the new species of business.

[For more from the authors on this topic, see "The Digital Leader: Master of the Six Digital Transformations."]