Established companies know how to create new products, enter new markets, and roll out new operational systems. But in the modern economy, that may not be enough to guarantee survival. The increasing pace of change in business models, technologies, and systems is putting intense pressure on established companies. That's why the average lifespan of a company on the S&P 500 has dropped from 67 years in the 1920s to 18 years today - and is trending down.

Because disruption involves making "significant changes" to these systems, established firms find it extraordinarily hard to transition from execution to disruption. That's why 80% of intrapreneurship projects fail, according to research by Beth Altringer at Harvard. In most cases, the only viable option for established companies is to acquire disruptive upstarts that threaten and / or provide new opportunity.