We hear a lot about discontinuous change these days. It first cropped up in catastrophe theory, which may give pause for thought, but business thinkers and economists like the way it describes the quantum leap, the radical shift that makes everything look different. They also like how it (eventually) boosts growth, far more than incremental change ever does.
Some of the most powerful discontinuities of the last century or so have been the coming of the horseless carriage, of the personal computer and now - dot.com bust or no - of the internet. The internet has forced anyone running a business to reconsider exactly how they market, sell and distribute their products. And that boils down to some serious thought about channel management.
