Inspired by Harvard's Christensen on Disruption

My eyes were opened when I read Harvard Prof. Clayton Christensen's books on disruptive innovation. 

In reading his books, I developed a better understanding of my work in the past 10 years as an investment analyst. And it shed light on some important questions I probed as a management consultant:

• Why is it that competitors dismissed disruptive innovations as inferior?
• Why did the companies neglect seemingly less attractive markets with better profit potential than less lucrative mainstream markets?
• How could an incompatible or niche market product be more successful than a product designed to appeal to a broad market segment?
• How could companies make the leaps of faith required to pursue unproven markets?
• What were the signs that a new disruptive innovation was taking hold?

I will start with the most recent book first, Seeing What's Next.  Christensen dismisses Wall Street analysts for their inability to see beyond current trends. I think he's right. This is the toughest challenge on Wall Street as in any business.

Extrapolating future scenarios from current trends is a dangerous business and it seldom works for investors.  And it fails miserably as a method to discover the next big thing, which a lot of businesses try to do. 

A new framework for analyzing identifying tech trends is needed and Christensen's theories on disruptive innovation serve as a good starting point, and an inspired way to think about innovation.

** Resources**

An excerpt from Clayton Christensen & Innosight's newsletter, Strategy & Innovation, looked at four industries now facing disruption in a guest column by Michael Urlocker, CEO of The Disruption Group.

Archive of The Disruption Group in the news.

The Disruption Group lists the benefits of disruption, including new revenue streams and sustainable, high return on equity.  The website also has a CEO Guide to the Benefits of Disruption (pdf)

The Innovator's Battle Plan, Excerpted from Seeing What's Next and published in Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge, Sept. 2004

USA Today excerpted Christensen's second book, The Innovator's Solution.

BusinessWeek excerpted Christensen's first book, The Innovator's Dilemma.

Preview videos of author Clayton Christensen speaking to a business audience in Cape Cod, available at the Washington Speakers Bureau.

Amazon.com list of Christensen's works.