James Ledbetter, Editor of Inc. Magazine, was the keynote speaker for Entrecon seminar held Thursday at the Rex Theatre. Here he is telling the crowd how social media has put the public in charge more and more when it comes to running a successful business.

Disruption typically is not a good thing unless you’re a new business in the midst of causing it.

Today, we are evolving through an era of disruption in business that is creating new markets by changing old models, says James Ledbetter, editor of Inc. Magazine and Inc.com.

“It creates an entirely new market that didn’t exist before,” Ledbetter told about 200 people in attendance at EntreCon. “Disruption requires a different level of response than ‘sustaining innovation.’”

Ledbetter is among 34 business leaders taking part in the inaugural EntreCon 2015 sponsored by the University of West Florida Center for Entrepreneurship and the Studer Community Institute.

The goal is to share lessons in business and learn new ways to start and grow a company.

So, what is business disruption?

Clay Christensen, a Harvard Business School professor, defined “disruption” in “The Innovator’s Dilemma.”

He said a disruptive product addresses a market that previously couldn’t be served — a new-market disruption – or it offers a simpler, cheaper or more convenient alternative to an existing product — a low-end disruption.

Companies like Amazon, Uber and Airbnb have caused disruption and created new models.

Ledbetter recalled the consternation when Inc. Magazine named Airbnb its Company of the Year.

Airbnb was disrupting the hotel industry by getting hundreds of thousands of places to say in people’s homes, apartments and condominiums instead of hotels amd motels.

“We asked, ‘Do we really want to make this the Company of the Year?’” Ledbetter says. “Disruption almost always looks unattractive.”

The key to disruption, Ledbetter says, is to put the crowd — the people who want, need or demand the service — in charge.

Airbnb puts people in beds. Uber turns car owners into taxi drivers.

“If you’re running a disruptive business, congratulations,” Lee says. “If you’re on the other side, you have to rethink why you do the things you do.”

The sad reality is that most people who find themselves on the wrong side of disruption, usually don’t survive, according to Ledbetter.

But those that do have a strong commitment from their company’s CEO,

“You need personal oversight of the CEO,” he said. CEOs must be completely committed if you’re going to win in the face of disruption. This is what you need.”