With the advent of the Internet and globalization, the world is now changing faster than anyone could imagine, driving us into “the age of great disruption”. As scientific and technological innovation flourishes, the life cycle of enterprises and products unavoidably become shorter. In this case, a sudden change would kill those resistant to changes and new ideas, removing them from the market and the world. Against this backdrop, the World Economic Forum, in its Global Competitiveness Report 2019, surveyed the extent to which companies embraced disruptive ideas to depict the business dynamism of different economies, which contributes to their innovation ecosystem.

Dubbed “a hub of innovation”, Israel undisputedly ranked first among 141 economies, staying ahead of the rest of the world with a score of 5.11. The United States, a leader of global innovation trends, came in second with a score of 5.09. Malaysia landed in third place with a score of 5.08, owing to the country’s recent efforts to encourage scientific research innovation through economic transformation. The Philippines surprised many by breaking into the top ten with a score of 4.69, outperforming countries with strong innovation capabilities such as Singapore (4.58), Taiwan (4.29), China (4.23), South Korea (3.97), and Japan (3.92)—South Korea and Japan even fell to 42nd and 48th place, respectively.

All enterprises are striving to innovate, but only a few managed to achieve disruptive innovation. For most companies, disruptive innovation is a high stakes game, and the risk of failing, despite the accompanying high returns, is so high that most companies choose to avoid it. In particular, long-standing firms face the dilemma of pursuing innovation or maintaining steady progress when they need to break free from their successful business models and pursue a new, unknown market. However, with the rapid advancement of scientific and technological development, as well as the environment, past success is no guarantee of future results. Therefore, businesses that are enjoying the sweet fruits of success are recommended to keep running scared—in an ever-changing future, it is only by thinking out of the box, being open-minded to different opinions, and having the courage to venture into new markets that enterprises can better secure first-mover advantages.