Run-Disrupt-Change — in that order!

Creating competitive advantage doesn’t come from adopting the same technologies as everyone else, but from merging the new with the old to satisfy user needs better than rivals. This requires a shift from tasking static, unconnected teams to ‘Run, Change and Disrupt’ (RCD) current systems, to a more dynamic, whole-of-organisation focus on what to Run-Disrupt-Change (RDC) — in that order!

Wardley Mapping is the operating system for this approach.

Every organisation runs on components that were once a ‘source of wonder’ — electricity, computing, LLMs — but have become costs of doing business today. A Wardley Map shows us which components we should RUN our operations on, and where we should build the higher-order systems that DISRUPT the old ways of working and create new sources of value.

Extracting value from the new requires continual adaption. Leading players in their industries, such as AirBnB and GovTech Singapore, use a trimodal model to facilitate this. A system of Pioneers-Settlers-Town Planners helps manage the hand-offs between diverse teams, so the organisation adapts quicker and more effectively to CHANGE.

This article presents research from the World Economic Forum (WEF), cases from a tech startup and Fortune 500 company, and provides insights into how Amazon is eating industries today: by supplying the platforms others RUN their operations on, stimulating ecosystems to DISRUPT them, and integrating whatever gains traction to CHANGE how they operate.

This is how we shape the landscape to our advantage.

A 2026 World Economic Forum (WEF) report, Technology Convergence: The New Logic for Competitive Advantage,[1] argues that competitive advantage comes from combining different technologies, rather than mastering a single one.

Winners are rarely the most technologically advanced, but those able to orchestrate better — integrating new sources of value into existing workflows. The WEF presents the 3C framework (Combine, Converge, Compound) as a guide for this.

The WEF’s framework draws on Wardley Mapping [2]— a way to see how landscapes are changing — but the report provides no maps showing how to turn insights into action. We address that deficiency and argue that competitive advantage comes from what we Run, Disrupt and Change — in that order!

Breakthrough innovation doesn’t come from a single technology alone, but from technological advances in one area creating opportunities in adjacent areas. For example, advances in AI augment robotics, and advances in materials science open new pathways for next-generation energy systems.

Economist Carlota Perez [3] demonstrated that the integration of complementary technologies triggers industrial revolutions: the spinning jenny (1764), water-powered mill (1771) and power loom (1785) mechanised the cotton industry; while advances in iron bar production helped build the infrastructure — canals, waterways and turnpikes — that launched the first industrial revolution. This pattern of converging technologies, backed by entrepreneurial financing, has repeated across every revolution since. And Perez’s work suggests our current technological revolution is unlikely to be different.

The question businesses should be asking therefore is: how do we create competitive advantage from these changes? The WEF explains why betting on a single technology alone is not the answer:

We create competitive advantage by overcoming constraints in our landscape — scarcity, risk, coordination challenges — without creating new, equally severe constraints. The WEF proposes the 3C framework for guiding this, but we argue it doesn’t go far enough, nor deep enough. Let’s address its shortcomings and provide a better source of guidance.

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