The Innovator's Dilemma

Publisher's Summary

His work is cited by the world's best-known thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell. In this classic best seller - one of the most influential business books of all time - innovation expert Clayton Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right - yet still lose market leadership. Christensen explains why most companies miss out on new waves of innovation. No matter the industry, he says, a successful company with established products will get pushed aside unless managers know how and when to abandon traditional business practices. Offering both successes and failures from leading companies as a guide, The Innovator's Dilemma gives you a set of rules for capitalizing on the phenomenon of disruptive innovation.

©2016 The President and fellows of Harvard College (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

This book is best read, not heard

This book presents thoughtful, well researched frameworks, many of which are now commonly accepted approaches to succeeding with disruptive innovation, even for non-tech companies. The book was a bit dry though and the case studies could have been briefer. Also, the book discusses charts that help the reader better understand the concepts. I would have preferred to read the book so that I could see the charts.

21 of 21 people found this review helpful

Too Big to Succeed, Innovation Starts Small.

Have you ever wondered how anyone can compete with a large company? Think of all the resources that the super-companies have that aren't accessible by most people: expensive trainings, access to start of the art technology, extensive supplier networks, discounts on massive orders of parts, etc. I know that I have often felt discouraged as an entrepreneur when brainstorming how to compete with established businesses. If you have any interest in learning why big companies fail, this book is for you.

One point that the book explains is that large companies aren't interested in emerging technologies until they are profitable enough to justify their attention. However, small companies are happy to pursue emerging technologies because they are looking for smaller sources of revenue. By the time the emerging technology is profitable enough for a big company to begin to pursue it, it's too late because the small company already has too great of lead in the market. Think Ford, Tesla, and the electric car. Ford had some basic research into electric cars, but wasn't really interested in them because they weren't profitable enough. Tesla, as a smaller company, was interested enough to pursue the electric car. Now Tesla has a great head start in the electric car market compared to Ford.

I really enjoyed this book. This isn't the kind of book I can marathon, it takes time to understand and think about the concepts taught. This is the kind of book that opens your eyes to what is happening in the business world. I highly recommend this book to businessmen and engineers alike.

14 of 15 people found this review helpful

Great Book in Need of Companion PDF

The material is phenomenal but is sorely lacking a companion PDF to illustrate the graphs and charts referenced throughout the book as well as the book discussion at the end.

12 of 13 people found this review helpful

As relevant today as it was when it was printed

Great story good performance. Although this book was written years ago, it's still relevant today. The author's stories on disruptive tech like hard disk drives, motorcycles, and back hoes, carry the same lesson in today's tech like AI, AR, and autonomous vehicles. I highly recommend this book to anyone who's interested in breaking ground in emerging technologies or working in any disruptive industry. Startup founders should start here before reading anything else.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Really insightful.

An excellent read for engineers/managers in competitive markets. A cautionary tale that highlights the risk of market dominance.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

An encyclopedia’s worth of information

This is one that requires a read, a reread and at least one more after that in order to fully grasp what is being presented. Immense and deep in its knowledge written, but a classic Christensen book that one cannot miss.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Solid, though a bit in the weeds sometimes

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

If one is interested in building a foundation on innovation from an academic perspective, this is a great book for that. By academic, I mean, educated dissecting review. It is also a good business reference for those reasons. Although it gets a bit too technical and detailed (even for an Engineer like me) at times, the book is still excellent in discussing how a variety of companies in a variety of markets struggle with protecting the southwest end of their market positions while ascending the northeasterly direction traditional management practices recommend.

What about L.J. Ganser’s performance did you like?

The Narrator does a great job of delivering this book with some heavy technical jargon.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

at least somewhat irrelevant

Made at least somewhat irrelevant by modern events. The electric car for example. Tesla was disruptive without being a spin off.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

darwin

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The book is not new. It is quite old. Not covering late changes. PDF is not available.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Interesting Points

This book really makes interesting points for CEO in technology companies. Having already read some books on this topic, for me was a bit boring though. I have to say thought that the points he makes are sound and interesting.