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The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth (精装)
by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor
| Category:
Strategy, Innovation, Management |
| Market price: ¥ 318.00
MSL price:
¥ 278.00
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| Stock:
In Stock |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A critical tool to understand and succeed with disruptive innovation. |
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AllReviews |
  1 2 Total 2 pages 14 items |
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Robert Steele (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
I was talking to a friend the other day about why major (multi-billion dollar a year) companies are not good at innovation, and he recommended this book. Wow! Looking at the companies I know and admire, it all became clear. Innovation *is* disruptive; the most promising marketplace is the opposite of their existing defense and intelligence clients - the people that do not get adequate intelligence support from the existing cash cow; and all of the middle and senior managers (Washington-based) are incrementalists who had succeeded at building bodies-for-hire accounts over decades.
For those who feel an intuitive faith in disruptive endeavors, this book is inspiring and also instructional. It specifically suggests that entrants will beat incumbents when the objective is to substitute lower-cost good-enough solutions for client needs that are not satisfied by high end production. However, it also makes clear that the Last place you want to sell disruptive solutions in to is the existing high end client base. Go for new customers and new contexts.
In government intelligence terms: stop trying to teach the spies that they need to do a better job on open sources of information in 33+ languages. Instead, go after the Departments of State, Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, Homeland Security, and the elements of the Department of Defense that do not get adequate classified intelligence support. Establish Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) as a viable endeavor there, and in ten years come back and crush the spies in head on competition.
Three "litmus tests" that the authors put forward are very helpful to those seeking to monetize disruptive new ideas:
1) Is there a population of clients that has historically been under-funded, under-staffed, and have as a result Gone Without?
2) Is this group likely to appreciate lower cost "good enough" solutions?
3) Is it possible to be profitable while providing these clients lower cost good enough solutions (e.g. monitoring risk around the world, at the sub-state level, something the spies simply cannot do effectively despite their $50 billion a year budget)?
Another major lesson I drew from this book is that alternative channels can be phenomenally successful. One example the book uses: instead of selling low-cost throw away cameras through photography shops oriented to high-end perfectionists, move them into grocery stores and discount stores for the low-end market that could not afford a traditional camera. This Makes Sense. Hence, instead of trying to sell low-cost open source services to the people who think they have the most to lose from promoting them (the mandarins of the high-cost secrets), go instead to the least well-served end-users, the logisticians, acquisition managers, diplomats, etcetera, and get them to test localized rather than centralized solutions that then "explode" as other end-users see the low-cost success and emulate through decentralized adoption of new best practices.
The last half of the book is loaded with stuff useful to how I am going to structure my relationship with any major corporation - it focuses on a number of key factors including scale, profitability over growth, proprietary end to end solutions in the beginning, transitioning rapidly to open distributed solutions at the right moment, and ensuring that the team members are NOT incrementalist line managers that succeeded by going along within a status quo system.
The following quote captures my perception of the imperfection of the guys at the top that don't get it: "In many ways, the managers that corporate executives have come to trust the most because they have consistently delivered the needed results in core businesses cannot be trusted to shepherd the creation of new growth." (Page 183).
The book goes on to discuss the conflict between the traditional processes of managing traditional businesses, the conflict between traditional business values versus those of disruptive innovators (who can tend to alienate and aggravate executives used to having life just so), and between the "pace" of big organizations that need 12 months to think about an opportunity, and small "fleet of foot" innovators that can evaluate, act, write a proposal, and win million-dollar jobs over a week-end.
The authors are generally negative about business unit consolidation, and make the point that the bigger the business gets, the more process takes precedence over people. They specifically caution against a strategy of acquisition as a means of growth, documenting the terrible toll this can take as a cash flow drain, in essence saying that really big growth cannot come from incrementalist approaches. I put the book down with the feeling that the really big companies need to think seriously about launching spin-offs, as Charles Schwab did, and the really small companies, like mine, have a fighting shot at beating the hell out of the established beltway bandits who are too slow, too arrogant, and too rich to be serious about innovation for the future.
This book made me smile, and it made me think. Super piece of work. |
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Dennis Meniv (MSL quote), Brazil
<2006-12-28 00:00>
Professor Christensen, in this concise book, aims to develop a theory to explain how disruption occurs (much of which he had already done in Innovator's Dilemma) and how companies can position themselves to defend their markets, exploit opportunities in disrupted markets, and tell the difference between incremental market improvements and disruptions.
Disruption, he describes convincingly, usually occurs at the "bottom" of the market, where new companies compete mainly with non- consumption and powerful incumbents would not mind. The best example I found was used in many different chapter, was that of department stores being moved to high margin clothing by discounters and category killers. The disruptors came in and took the most undesirable parts of the business and built a model to make it economical.
The most brilliant insight, however, I found to be the effect when the disruption is complete, that is, when the original incumbent is driven out of the market. Then margins fall precipitously, since the marginal cost now is at the disruptor rather than the disruptee.
A manager facing a disrupted industry would do well to read this book. In it, there are simple pieces of advice on how a company should organize to gain the agility to implement a disruptive model, even if originating within the incumbent. You will read it and immediately start looking for disruptions all around you, eager to find one that can be exploited. The model developed is very interesting, as the authors spend quite a bit of writing on the underpinnings of the theory. Overall, it is a very useful book, though if you are a practical businessman (rather than one interested in and who finds theories helpful) you will likely not enjoy it. Theorists in business would be the best target audience. |
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Tim Sword (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
Companies of all sizes and in all industries are under constant threat by disruptive business models and technologies. I recommend this book to many CEO's of my business clients, as they grapple with new competitors, many aided by unimaginably low barriers to entry via the Web. A recent example is an 80 year-old travel company, which used to fill tours easily, with thousands of people on a given tour series, is now competing against tiny operators with web-based business who offer niche travel offerings, e.g., for Italian cooking in Tuscany, and whose entire customer base is less than 100 passengers. Clayton Christensen gives both disrupters and the disrupted frameworks for understanding and taking action in these scenarios. This book is an essential read and reference for any C-level executive or anyone tasked with competitive strategy today. Its ideas and examples are as fresh as the day they were penned. |
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An European reader (MSL quote), Europe
<2006-12-28 00:00>
The dilemma for top-ranking companies is that by doing all of the things that lead to success, they may doom themselves to failure. Disruptive innovations typically debut at the low end of the market or among nonusers, as unprofitable, unpromising and crude products, in comparison to the mainstream standards. Then, established companies make the understandable mistake of ignoring them, only to be overtaken from below. Author Clayton M. Christensen's previous classic, The Innovator's Dilemma, identified this problem. This subsequent book offers a solution by helping managers identify potentially disruptive innovations, correctly read the market and the competitive environment, and develop a response. This book is not quite as innovative or provocative as its predecessor, but it is a valuable extension of Christensen's theory. If you want to know what your company can do about this serious competitive problem, we recommend this solid follow-up. |
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