The Innovator's Dilemma

When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Narrated by: Don Leslie

Length: 2 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Great companies can fail: not because they do anything wrong, but because they do everything right. Meeting customers' current needs leads firms to reject breakthrough innovations, "disruptive technologies", that create the products and opportunities of the future.

Radical thinking...and a wake-up call. Citing examples from many industries (computers, retailing, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, steel), Clayton M. Christensen explains how to avoid a similar fate. He presents strategies for determining when not to listen to customers, when to pursue small markets at the expense of larger ones, and other ways to ensure long-term growth and profit. This award-winning audiobook shows managers the changes that may be coming: and how to respond for success.

©1997, 2000 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Published by arrangement with Harvard Business School Press (P)2000 HighBridge Company

An interesting perspective on innovation

If you work somewhere where you work or drive innovation, I would recommend reading this book. It has some interesting perspectives on when and what types of innovation are successful. It may taking some thought to apply this to your situation, but read it and see what you learn.

Excellent discussion of innovation challenges.

Where does The Innovator's Dilemma rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Near the top

Any additional comments?

Excellent discussion of the challenges of continuing to innovative at a fast pace as companies become successful and large.

Very Insightful

What made the experience of listening to The Innovator's Dilemma the most enjoyable?

Good speaker. The book moved along quickly without adding a lot of fluff. It gets right to the point. Awesome book and great information.

Not Everything I Hoped For.

What did you love best about The Innovator's Dilemma?

Though the book did have its positive moments, I wasnt 100% impressed. It was a bit redundant, I felt like he stressed the same topic over and over again, which may have been the point because this a is a huge thing companies deal with.

A huge summary of the book was, smaller firms have an easier time entering into smaller more innovative markets, because their margins or number of sales dont need to be as large as say a bigger company. 20% of $40 million company is only $8 Million, while 20% of $400 million is $80 milion, which the new market may not have.

Other than that, the reader was a little dull, but the content did stick, as he said it a million times haha.

Pretty good ideas, a bit long.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, assuming the friend was in a situation of trying to innovate from within a large, established company.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Innovator's Dilemma?

None.

How could the performance have been better?

Yes. I didn't like the narrator's style. He's kind of "breathless" in that every sentence has extra emphasis, sort of like a radio announcer reading a commercial. It gets old very quickly. I much prefer a more relaxed conversational style, using emphasis only when called for.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I listened to it driving to/from work, it too about one week.

Any additional comments?

My expectations for this book were too high, based on all the great things I heard about it from other people. I think I would've liked the book better had I not had those sky-high expectations. But all in all, it's a good book worth reading.

A classic still holds up

Applies to CISCO, Google, Apple, Samsung and many of today's tech leaders.

I recommend it

succinct. powerful, and excellent!

the book breaks down a single idea, and presents it clearly. very nicely done. thanks

Don’t buy this version

Not the complete versions. The narration stops at Introduction and then jumped to chapter 5. Why Amazon put an incomplete audiobook for sale? Request refund!

Too ancient a reference

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Nice business book for an MBA student.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The theory was fine. The examples were dated and boring.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Don Leslie?

No idea

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Yes, the overall theory holds today.

Poor Execution

The concept of this book is awesome but the combination of both the narrator and the way it is written made it hard to bare. I constantly asked myself why I was listening to this but knew it was to learn so I pushed through. Great message being passed but defiantly not the best to read or listen to.