The Innovators Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth by Clayton M. Christensen

The Innovators Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth Reviews

• 
  Aisha

  It took me a while, but worth finally persevering to the end. This isn't your typical business book, with a few nice aphorisms and over and done with in a couple of hours. No, this is a tightly argued guide to repeated disruptive innovation. And its not easy, in fact, Christensen even admits that he knows of only a handful of businesses that have achieved it, and a large part of their success came from the influence of their founders. The suggestions he makes does, however, suggest an explanation for why so few businesses have managed it - it is incredibly difficult, and involves winning at two very different strategies simultaneously. On the good side, it suggests some ways to possibly escape the dilemma, on the bad for me side, disruption is a lot more likely to come from outsiders rather than incumbents, no matter how clear it is that the industry is in the middle o a shake down.
• 
  Diego Petrucci

  "Disruption" is one of the most misunderstood terms — it implies not only a technological advancement, but a specific kind of innovation that — while un-interesting at first— is poised to become a real breakthrough.
  
  There are two types of disruptive innovation: ones is low-end disruption (i.e. something that costs less than the main thing and performs worse for a while, until it gets better but still costs less), the other is new-market disruption (i.e. a product whose main consumer is someone that was until then a non-consumer). This book explains how to recognize disruption, how to prepare for it, and how to embrace it. It's really well written and in my opinion a required reading for those planning to start our manage a business, our for those that like to know his stuff works and how to recognize patterns.
• 
  Michael Burnam-Fink

  Where The Innovator's Dilemma was about theory, this is about implementation-a recipe for managers looking to lead successful companies. Christensen admirably tackles the complex problem of guiding a company though times of disruption. There's a lot here, but the essence is that if you want to succeed, start with an idea that is somewhat profitable and go after customers who are under-served, either because no product exists that fits their needs, or they're the least profitable segment of an established market. If you want to make a lot of money, you need to have a product that is "not-yet-good-enough" so that your firm can compete on quality and innovation as opposed to cost.
  
  Christensen advises against purely causal management-picking executive who have succeeded before or following the latest reorganization fad. He is particularly opposed to 'focusing on our core competencies' as the kind of accounting trick that hollows out a company over the long term. The kind of foresight required to move towards where the market is going rather than where's it been isn't easy to acquire, the insight and flexibility needed to switch strategies in midstream is even harder to find, but Christensen makes a compelling argument that good management is possible.
• 
  Yevgeniy Brikman

  A few nuggets wrapped in so much business-speak that it's genuinely hard to read. There's only so many times I can hear terms like "enhancing shareholder value," "new-market disruptive growth businesses," and "earn attractive returns on lower gross margins" before my eyes glaze over. I found myself tuning in and out, and would suddenly realize that I remembered nothing from the last 20 minutes of reading.
  
  Also, like so many business books, it's not clear if this book gives you tools that are predictive (i.e., useful in the future) or merely observational (i.e., are just describing something that happened in the past). The parts that lovingly describe the innovation of RIM and the Blackberry, and then not long after, explain that the camera phone likely has no future, make me doubt some of the "theoretical models" proposed in this book.
  
  Nevertheless, there is a bit of good content hidden in these pages:
  
  * The problem discussed in The Innovator's Dilemma, where large, established companies can rarely create new innovations and get disrupted by newcomers, is rarely caused by a lack of ideas. The real problem is usually in how ideas are selected and shaped. When some new product idea comes along and disrupts a large established company, in many cases, that large company had known about that idea all along, and had perhaps even tried to build it themselves, but failed to do so due to the way the company prioritized, funded, and developed products. In other words, the ability of big businesses to innovate is limited by process, not creativity.
  
  * The main way to create a "disruptive" product is to (a) come up with a technology or approach that gives a market segment access to a product they could never access before and then (b) gradually improve the technology more and more to move "up market" and capture more and more market share. In the first stage, your product can be worse than your competitors, as you're actually competing against non-usage: that is, the customers in that segment can't use any of the alternative products (e.g., because they are too expensive or require too much expertise), so they'll still gladly buy your inferior product. Moreover, this segment usually offers lower margins and will seem like a small market, so your larger competitors will often gladly abandon that market to you so they can chase higher margin opportunities elsewhere. Once you've established a foothold in that market segment, the second stage is to start improving your technology and moving "up market," gradually capturing more and more demanding market segments. By the time the competitor realizes what has happened, your lead with the new technology will be too great for them to overcome.
  
  * Segment markets by the situation (i.e., the problem to be solved) and not by the attributes of the customer or product. For example, if you were selling milkshakes, you might be tempted to segment the market into people who like thick milkshakes vs thin ones, sweet vs non sweet, etc. This is not as effective as segmenting the market by what problem people are trying to solve when they choose to buy (or not buy!) a milkshake: e.g., the person who has a long commute or the parent who wants to buy their kids a treat. If you segment based on the problem to be solved, you'll realize that the attributes of the product only matter in terms of how they help to solve that problem: e.g., for the commuter, you'll want a product that can last through a long commute (thick!) and can be eaten with one hand, while driving, without making a mess (a nice container with a straw). You'll also realize that your competitors aren't just other milkshakes, but other foods commuters might consider, such as bagels, egg sandwiches, donuts, etc.
  
  * Integrated vs modular design is determined by whether the technology is "good enough." For example, computers in the 60s and 70s weren't fast enough, so the most successful companies tended to be integrated, building all the parts and software themselves to eke out every possible gram of performance. However, as hardware improved, computers offered way more performance than a typical customer could use, which opened the door for modular parts and outsourcing. Modular design is always a compromise, but if you have performance to spare, it offers advantages in terms of time to market and margins that make it worthwhile. Each time this happens, the integrated solutions have to move up market to the most demanding market segments that are still competing on performance.
  
  * Your company's cost structure plays a major role in determining your values and culture. That is, most companies will never prioritize work that results in lower profit margins. As a result, the products that your company will build, the customers you'll approach, the people you hire, and many other aspects are all derived from the type of profits you hope to generate; this fact is so pervasive that it becomes hard to see, as you won't even consider other options. Therefore, think about cost structure very carefully!
  
  * Design your company so your *ideal* customers can deliver the profits you need. That is, (a) figure out which customers you're really after, (b) figure out the type of profit margins you want in your business, and then (c) make sure that the products you build can deliver the type of profits you're after when sold to your ideal customers. The worst thing that could happen is that your ideal customer is ready to sign, but the deal would not be profitable enough if you signed them!
  
  Having written down my take aways, I must say that this is yet another business book that would've worked better as a long blog post or talk...
• 
  Michael Cestas

  Solved a dilemma I had.
• 
  Elena Petrevska

  Repetitive (to the Innovator’s Dilemma and to itself), outdated, very boring to read. 😟
• 
  Giedrius

  Not your typical shallow marketing book filled with mumbo-jumbo which could be condensed into a few pages.
  
  This no-bullshit book dives deep into the case studies and research to provide great insights thinking about the strategy and execution of it. Few days after finishing it I still find myself thinking about some of the concepts introduced here (e.g. competing with nonconsumption).
  
  I rate it 4 stars because it is not an easy read and listening to the audio version definitely didn't help with that. Will take some time in the future to actually read it.
  
  
  Here are the main takeaways:
  
  1. Never target an incumbent with a sustaining solution
  In almost all cases, an incumbent will win if they are threatened by a sustaining technology. They will simply do more of what they’re good at, serving their customers with product improvements. The solution is to enter the market from below. Create a product that is not as good as the incumbents', but is cheaper, easier or more convenient. It’s important to begin with targeting a lower profit margin. Incumbents would rather let a low margin business go and concentrate on high margin growth (flee, not fight).
  
  2. Customers ‘hire’ products to get specific ‘jobs’ done
  "Companies that target their products at the circumstances in which customers find themselves, rather than at the customers themselves, are those that can launch predictably successful products."
  
  3. Core competence is a dangerously inward-looking notion
  "Core competence, as it is used by many managers, is a dangerously inward-looking notion. Competitiveness is far more about doing what customers value than doing what you think you’re good at. And staying competitive as the basis for competition shifts necessarily requires a willingness and ability to learn new things rather than clinging hopefully to the sources of past glory."
  
  4. Proprietary architectures lead to overshooting what the market needs
  An industry is always in a state of flux and never completely one or the other. The trick for senior managers is to build up the instinct for where the market is moving and to move towards it.
  "Managers of industry-leading businesses need to watch vigilantly in the right places to spot these trends as they begin because the processes of commoditization and de-commoditization both begin at the periphery, not the core."
  
  5. Use the emergent strategy to develop disruptive innovations
  There are two fundamentally different processes for strategy formation: deliberate and emergent. Deliberate is common. It is analytical, rigorous, and formulated after a deep review of factors like market segment sizing, customer needs, competition, projected returns and so on.
  Emergent strategy is the cumulative effect of all the day-to-day decisions made to invest and prioritize resources. These decisions are made from middle management and at the individual employee level. You can tell what a company’s strategy is by looking at what comes out of the resource allocation process and not what goes into it. This scenario should dominate when the future is hard to forecast and it is not yet clear which direction the business should take.
  
  6. Appoint people for their ability to learn, not their track record
  “It is not as important that managers have succeeded with the problems as it is for them to have wrestled with it and developed the skills and intuition for how to meet the challenge successfully the next time around … Failure and bouncing back from failure can be critical courses in the school of experience.”
  
  7. Be patient for growth and impatient for profit
  
  Launch new-growth businesses regularly, when the core business is in healthy shape. When financial results signal the need to do it, it is probably too late.
  As an organization grows, continue to divide up business units so that each unit can launch new ventures and be patient for growth, as they are small enough to benefit from small opportunities (disruptive innovations will start out small).
  Minimize the use of profit from the core business to subsidize losses in the new-growth ventures. Be impatient for profit and patient for growth. If a venture is profitable, it remains likely to continue even when the core business is struggling.
  
  
  8. Launching disruptive businesses can be a repeatable process
  1. The best time to invest in growth is when the company is growing.
  2. Appoint senior executive to shepherd ideas and resource allocation.
  3. Create a team and a process for shaping ideas.
  4. Train the troops. Sales, marketing, and engineering, in particular, must be trained to spot disruptive ideas because these individuals are most likely to encounter them and see the opportunities.
• 
  Petar Ivanov

  Really amazing book, full of a lot of management, strategy, leadership, and business insights backed with a great amount of case studies and research from the authors. It presents a new and clear way of creating disruptive innovations and also how to make them sustainable.
  All mentioned points and guidelines could be put immediately into practice and that makes the book very practical and helpful. The main aspects that intrigued me the most are finding the jobs-to-be-done of the customers, competing with non-consumption, and creating new channels under the radar of your competitors.
  In a nutshell, I strongly recommend reading the book.
• 
  Timon Ruban

  Very little bullshit and a lot of compelling theory and sound reasoning about getting the initial conditions right when building new growth ventures. Indeed, the graduated version of the Innovator's Dilemma!
• 
  Phil

  Painfully insightful. One would do well to keep a little Christensen angel on their shoulder.
  
  Worthy of re-reads.
• 
  Michael Janes

  [Audiobook] Came recommended by a good friend and I started without realizing that it's the second book in a series. The book is solid and offers good examples about the business world, a world still rather foreign to me. While the business examples are somewhat dated (Palm Pilot, Blackberry, etc), you get the added benefit of seeing how everything plays out with hindsight, confirming many and disproving a few of the author's predictions.
  
  I would recommend for anyone in the business world, though I think you'd be better served reading the first book (The Innovator's Dilemma) prior to moving on. However, I never felt at a loss reading The Innovator's Solution as it covers different, parallel topics to Dilemma.
• 
  Jozef Michalovčik

  Couple or interesting ideas from analysing some well known companies and how they innovated to build new disruptive businesses. However from stories of Intel, Intuit, IBM or Microsoft, i did not learn that much new stuff. Quite shallow analysis in my opinion and i had troubles to be pulled 100% into the reading. More of an recap for me…
• 
  MacKenzie

  Initially, I read this book out of boredom, but it was 99% worth it. Not only did I gather more intell on what it takes to run a successful business but I also learned how to create success universally apart from business. Also, the lessons taught are ones that use examples and real people to motivate and inspire, which I took appreciation towards on a personal level.
• 
  Yiying Zhao

  The 1st business book I’ve read as recommended by the company that I’m working for. Not sure what to expect but the languages can be more succinct I guess ;)
• 
  Jacques Bezuidenhout

  It is not an easy book, I wont lie.
  And doing it in Audio format probably made it even harder.
  
  It is written in a very formal style. And although he tries to summarise key points and keep referring back to them, there is just so much information/theory/examples in this book.
  
  You need to be in the type of position in a company where you get exposed to these high level sales/ideas/innovation decisions for this book to probably make any sense.
  
  It really does clarify a lot about why certain things work, and why others don't.
  
  The book is truly insightful. Doing the Audio version you probably just need a summary sheet to reference back to, since there is no way you can recall all that was said.
  
  Other books that I've read about building a business and entrepreneurship etc. always focus on an isolated case of how someone with unlimited funding made a success etc. This book, being based on theory and case studies made a lot more sense.
• 
  Tim

  A truly thought-provoking business book about how to make innovation work in all companies. However brilliant the content, it is written in a very formal style, and is hard to read.
  
  Details: Back by excellent research and detailed analysis this book explains how some companies succeed with innovation and why some fail. Using case studies the authors delve into what makes companies successfully innovate and comes up with some surprising rules around organizational structure.
  
  However, this is written too much like an academic treatise and I think it would be too dense for most readers.
  
  The Takeaway: Wonderful ideas but takes some effort.
• 
  Abhishek Shekhar

  The book is just continuation of The Innovator's Dilemma. Like an update on the previous book with changes in industry. And how the theory proposed in Innovator's dilemma should be used by managers to progress the growth path for their organization. Practically things are so dynamic that theory and reality are very different. Book is a good advisor to managers but i still don't see its that useful other than to be used as a good reads for B-schools.
• 
  Morten Greve

  While the authors' "corporate language" was quite off-putting for this reader at first, I came to appreciate the sheer analytic and conceptual power of their argument more and more. If, like me, your main interest is mission-driven, non-profit organizations, you'll need to do a bit of translating - but there's plenty of reason to make this effort. Much to be learned.
• 
  Andrea

  One of the best business books I have ever read. I read this during undergrad study in Business. I could almost feel the light bulb coming on in my head! Told using easy-to-understand language, it is a must read for those who wish to understand how to compete in today's business environment.
• 
  Anne

  a very interesting business book about disruption and innovation, including what established firms can do to remain leaders
• 
  Lincoln

  A lot of good interesting ideas and well founded research. Just a bit over my head
• 
  Niniane

  One of the top 5 business books I've read. Explained a lot of things I noticed about creating and growing software products!
• 
  Catherine Muller

  Examples were a bit outdated. Enjoyed the part describing how Blackberry / RIM was on the right track and camera phones were unlikely to take off.
• 
  Kehidupan

  Anda bingung membedakan merek maupun kualitas tas yang akan anda beli berikut anda bisa baca perbedaan masing-masing tas wanita yang lagi trend tahun 2016
  
  Tas wanita branded kw1, super, premium atau semiori kini semakin akrab di dunia fashion untuk kategori tas branded. Apa sih perbedaan tas wanita kualitas kw 1, tas super, semi premium dan tas premium bahkan dengan kualitas tas branded yang namanya agak sedikit janggal yaitu “semiori” (tapi harga tetap murah dan gak semi ori daripada yang ori hehe). Sebelum kita melangkah lebih jauh yang jelas kesemuanya itu adalah tas branded replika dari tas branded-branded yang popular seperti tas branded victoria beckham, tas branded Louis vuitton atau Lv, tas branded hermes dan tas branded lainnya dari merek-merek tas terkenal.
  
  Apa itu tas replika, tas replika atau sebutan lainnya tas kw branded merupakan tas palsu dari merek-merek tas terkenal yang kita sebutkan sebelumnya. Tentunya tidak diproduksi secara legal oleh pemilik aslinya, yang kebanyakan diproduksi oleh Negara-negara hongkong atau china. Sebelum kita teruskan, buatan china tidak semuanya palsu juga sih, cuman kebetulan tas wanita replika ini kebanyakan berasal dari Negara tersebut, karena ada banyak juga merek-merek branded original yang diproduksi di China dengan alasan untuk memangkas ongkos produksi, apa saja merek-merek terkenal yang diproduksi di China ini, mungkin nanti akan kita bahas di lain artikel.
  
  Diantara para wanita pembeli tas branded kw, tas branded super, tas branded premium dan tas branded semiori ini tidak sedikit yang bertanya apa sih beda dari istilah-istilah kualitas tas replika branded ini?
  
  Tas Wanita Branded Kw 1 harga pabrik
  
  Dulu sebelum kita mengenal tas kw kw-an seperti super, premium dan semiori, mungkin sebutan untuk tas kw atau tas replika ini adalah tas branded kualitas kw3, kw2 dan kw1 seiring dengan pertumbuhan tas versi kw yang semakin pesat dengan berbagai model tas terbaru, cantik dan lebih berkualitas, maka sekarang tas model kw 2, atau kw 3 sudah jarang disebutkan, walaupun tas-tas kw 2 atau kw 3 ini masih bayak dijual di toko-toko tas wanita branded kw. Biasanya modelnya kurang bagus atau ukurannya sangat kecil dan bahannya kurang bagus tapi sudah cukup memuaskan bag para pencari tas wanita branded murah. Sedangkan tas wanita branded kw1 biasanya lebih baik kualitasnya dari kw 2 dan 3, bahannya rata-rata kulit sintetis atau kanvas tipis, tapi makin kesini model-model tas branded untuk wanita dengan kualitas kw 1 semakin cantik.
  
  Biasanya dijual tanpa aksesoris dan tanpa serti, tanpa dustbag dan harganya murah biasanya di bawah 240rb keltika artikel ini ditulis ya :D. Di atas kualitas tas wanita branded kw 1 ini muncul tas wanita branded semi super yang ditandai biasanya dengan bahan yang sedikit lebih bagus, jahitan sedikit lebih rapih, dilengkapi dustbag dan bebrepa dilengkapi serti, dan kita banyak jual tas branded wanita semisuper ini lho, untuk memberikan kualitas dengan harga tas wanita yang masih dibilang cukup murah. Karena tentu saja bila kita sangat suka mengoleksi tas, daripada beli tas mahal tapi tiap dua bulan kita bosan, yah pilihannya adalah tas branded murah dengan kualitas kw 1 atau yang kualitas kw semisuper (di Tahun 2015 semakin jarang ditemukan l