In No Ordinary Disruption, Richard Dobbs, James Manyika, and Jonathan Woetzel explain how to cope with “four global forces breaking all the trends”: emerging growth markets (including cities) as the new gravitational centers of economic activity, increasingly faster pace of technological breakthroughs and adoptions, aging demographics, and globalization of trade driven by connectedness and interactivity.

In Chapter 2, “The Tip of the Iceberg” (Page 40), they discuss twelve technologies that have massive potential for disruption in the coming decade. Here are five:

The first two are changing the building blocks of everything:

1. Next-generation genomics: “Fast, low-cost gene sequencing, advanced big data analytics, and synthetic biology (‘writing DNA’)”

2. Advanced materials: “Materials designed to have supoerior characteristics (e.g. strength, weight, conductivity) or functionality”

The next three indicate that rethinking energy comes of age:

3. Energy storage: “Devices or systems that store energy for later use, including batteries”

4. Advanced oil and gas exploration and recovery: “Exploration and recovery techniques that make extraction of unconventional oil and gas economical”

5. Renewable energy: “Generation of electricity from renewable sources with reduced harmful climate impact”

Perhaps channeling Leon C. Megginson, not Charles Darwin (“it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself”), Dobbs, Manyika, and Woetzel explain how and why effective adaptation is essential to coping with the four disruptive forces. Hence the importance of their insights and counsel with regard to how to adapt to resource management improvements (9-10 and 120-128), urbanization (23-30), technological disruption (45-52), the new consuming class (25-26 and 98-109), aging trend (64-70), interconnected world (83-89), capital cost changes (140-147), labor market gap (156-164), and new competition (174-179).

Richard Dobbs is a director of the McKinsey Global Institute and a director in McKinsey’s London office, James Manyika is a director of the McKinsey Global Institute and a director in the San Francisco office, and Jonathan Woetzel is a director of the McKinsey Global Institute and a director in the Shanghai office.