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Summary: Wonderful insights and recommendations
Review: This book is excellent reading for anyone trying to take their company into new areas, such as e-commerce. The recent real-life case studies make the material very easy to grasp.Starts a little slow, but the recommendations for implementing disruptive technologies are right on the money. If you've been there, you can definitely relate and get some great ideas for the next time.
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Summary: Incredible but depressing -- "Must read" for technologists
Review: What's most incredible is that this book has been out for several years and is only starting to get noticed. Although Christensen does sidestep a few issues in order to make his point, for the most part the book is an incredibly accurate analysis of the way business ACTUALLY works. The depressing part is that, if you believe Christensen, there doesn't appear to be a lot that can be done within an established company to deal with "disruptive technology" other than to fold up your tent and move elsewhere.
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Summary: One of the 5 high-tech marketing books I've finished.
Review: I work in high-tech marketing, and while not the best in the biz, I do make money for my customers. Normally I toss marketing books after two chapters, as pop business or just nonsense. I read this one through because it was a modernized, thoughtful analysis of a universal problem: businesses, like people, get in a rut. This writer has carefully described how success is a trap that prevents a company from catching the next innovation. If I were a manufacturer, it would be particularly frightening, but I have also advised customers in retailing to read it. (Just to be cruel to the "latest information" buffs, please note that much of this was noted by Marcus Aurelius, and more recently by Machiavelli. Readers who are scared of fundamental truths should run for the nearest copy of Wired.)
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Summary: I am living the Innovator's Dilema every day!
Review: I am a Marketing Manager at a hard drive company -- my second hard drive company. This book explains EXACTLY why paradigm shifts occur in our business. The author focuses on the hard drive industry because our products have six-month market life cycles where being one week or $1 behind the competition can be the difference between selling 10-million units or selling next to zero. Hard drives are the most complicated technology inside a computer. Hard drive companies are run by PHD's and Stanford MBA's. But, in the last year our industry has lost hundreds of millions of dollars. We are on the verge of our next paradigm shift and several companies will be forced out of business in the next few years. Read this book and understand how our crazy business works. Then apply the lessons in your humdrum everyday industry.
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Summary: ill conceived pop trash
Review: ...need I say more
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Summary: A distortion of the real world to fit a simple theory
Review: Christensen has re-observed that mature companies have difficultly dealing with the low end of their market. Because of my personal experience my comments are limited to his analysis of the disk drive industry. He force fits his observations to his therory; in my opinion his observations have little connection with the industry's real history. In one sense his theory fails the Occam razor test; a much simpler theory is raised in "Capital Market Myopia," a Havard Business School paper which notes that in the 80's the Capital market funded too many companies - 80 or so companies all of whom expected 20% market share. Each plan by itself made sense and was fundable, but the totality was doomed to massive failure. I can't comment on his other examples, but if his rigor is consistent, then I suspect his history is equally flawed. In the end, what is so novel about the observation that large companies have difficultly dealing with the low end of their market - that's the automobile story in compacts; IBM's story in minicomputers, etc.? Save your money!
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Summary: Great strategic insights
Review: Christensen brilliantly makes the point that poor management is not always the cause of company failure. Often, even top-notch management is insufficient for survival in a technology environment. I highly recommend this book for every manager who is responsible for strategic decisions in technology-driven markets. Once the strategy is established, I recommend the book Survival of the Smartest as a guide to executing the strategy.
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Summary: Required reading for anyone concerned with new products
Review: A refreshing change from the literature which deals with structured approaches for current products. Disruptive technologies which improve over a period of time and new products which apparently have inferior performance and are looking for new markets is a totally novel way of looking at things. My own experience in a two wheeler manufacturer in India has vindicated this approach. I hope our managment will now look at candidates for new product development with a fresh insight. Great stuff.
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Summary: When Innovation and Administration Conflict, Who Wins?
Review: Successful companies need to be both innovative, and disciplined in creating profitable results from that innovation. The Innovator's Dilemma nicely spells out what usually happens when an innovative company with good administration runs into an innovative competitor who is new to the industry or this product/service: The company with something to lose from fostering the new innovation will usually protect the old at the expense of the new. Dramatic loss of position will inevitably follow for the company with the admistrative strength to protect profits, if the innovation requires the company to move in a new direction. To better understand the generic problem described here (because it applies to a lot more than just innovation, it also affects any needed change), you should read In Pursuit of Prime or any of the other Adizes books on life cycles of company management issues. The Innovator's Dilemma is a valuable addition to the literature of change management. You should read it if your industry is affected by new technologies that could make what you do today obsolete. Then you will also need to hone your organizational change skills because disbelief, procrastination, miscommunication, misconceptions, tradition, and bureaucracy will become significant hurdles.
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Summary: Profound
Review: Simply put, this is one of the best books on business I have ever read. The findings are absolutely counterintuitive, and that's what accounts for Christensen's brilliance. Yes, there's a lot of technobabble on the disk drive industry. But this book is more academic than most 'pop' business books, and seeks a more thourough proof. THIS BOOK WILL CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT BUSINESS AND MANAGE YOUR COMPANY, GUARANTEED.
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