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Summary: Microsoft -- caught in the Innovator's Dilemma
Review: Prof. Christensen introduces the ideas of 'value network' and 'distruptive innovations'. Successful companies follow their customers up-market, eventually overshooting the needs of the bulk of their customers. When a distruptive innovation occurs, the value network of the leading company -- its profit margins, quality expectations, etc. -- do not permit it to embrace a solution which is inferior to its current offering. The disruptive innovation eventually blossoms into a better solution than what the established company offers. Microsoft has been very successful from its founding in 1975, but as the Internet rose to prominence in the mid-1990s and Windows and Office are aging not very gracefully at the start of the 21st century, Microsoft is absolutely caught in the innovator's dilemma that Christensen describes.
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Summary: A new way of thinking
Review: This book presents a new way of thinking about the business world. Most companies lose sight of these essential principles. Learning and applying these ideas can be crucial for any company.
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Summary: Hindsight is 20/20
Review: The Innovator's Dilemma presents the idea that even if you do everything right, you can still be wrong if you don't see what's coming. unfortunately, that all depends on what you can see. In this case Christensen's hindsight is 20/20 and he can say "Of course they didn't see it coming." The problem is applying this to modern business. That said, it does present a very interesting way of looking at disruptive technology changes, and how sometimes you just aren't in a position to do anything unless you scrap everything and go from there. Much of his case relies on the hard drive industry, which he has some good quantitative data to work with. At the same time, it is some of his other examples, with backhoes, and steel mills that can illustrate his concept to a greater extent. Part of this is because while computer componants is a fast moving field, it is these more lumbering machine parts area that scream "steady as it goes." Thus his thesis is stronger. It is almost too bad that the newest version is only updated and with a new chapter. Much of his computer hard drive case is only through 1996 - a lifetime ago in terms of technology changes. I would have been fascinated to see him revisit his data and see what it shows. Granted, that would be a complete rewrite of his book, but something that is so groundbreaking as this requires more thorough updating. Overall it is a very good and though provoking book that makes you think. Will it help you catch the next wave and survive the disruption? I am not sure I can say I took that away with me.
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Summary: A "must own" for managers and business executives
Review: This is the best book on strategy I have ever read (and I've read a few in my time). In his book, "The Innovator's Dilemma", Clayton M. Christensen, business professor at Harvard, explains why established firms fail, more often than none, when confronted with disruptive technologies. Disruptive technology is different from radical innovation. Such technology initially proposes attributes that are not valued by current, mainstream customers. The technology is initially attractive to a small market segment -- making it unattractive for larger firms. Therefore lies the innovator's dillema: how to allocate resources to developing a technology that will target a smaller market and at lower margins. Thoughout his book, Mr. Christensen develops a framework for managers and executives (also valid and valuable for consultants and analysts) to be able to resolve this dillema. If you are to read only one book on business this year, the Innovator's Dillema should be it. The reviewer is a certified management consultant and earned his MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University and completed the Wharton School Multinational Marketing and Management Program. He is also a Professional Engineer and holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering from the University of Toronto.
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Summary: Answers the question: What Happened?
Review: In my 15 years in high tech, I've seen many established companies being done in by smaller competitors. While this is going all we would all shake our heads at the stupidity of the management of the large companies ... couldn't they see the trends? This book gives the first lucid explanation of why this happens. It shows that the managers were not being stupid. On the contrary, they were doing exactly what their customers wanted them to do ... and what they could afford to do. This book also lays out an excellent foundation that allows you to recognize the pattern and accurately predict where it could happen again. Great work!
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Summary: Content good, CD composition misses the concept
Review: I won't go into the content of Christensen's book, since most professionals who purchase it already know it's a seminal work on the pursuit of innovative new businesses by established firms. What I will go into is how the CD misses the concept of digital media. I have a 2001 Subaru Forester whose stereo has no problems playing audio CDs track by track. However, on Innovator's Dilemma, it appears that there is only 1 track per 100+ minute CD. A single track means that if you want to, say, listen to another CD before finishing this audio-book, you're hosed. With only 1 track, one can only start from the beginning. Turn down the volume at the drive-thru order window and an hour of driving later realize the CD was still playing? Start at the beginning again. Miss part of an excerpt because you got distracted in traffic? With only a single track, there's no rewinding except to restart from the beginning....
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Summary: Totally disappointing
Review: This book is very much in the "Emperor's New Clothes" school. It reminds me of the university textbook written by the professor. You HAVE to buy it because you are to be examined on the contents. Thus the professor makes a fine profit from an otherwise unsaleable book. I found it indigestible, and full of truisms. It seems an amalgam of so many other books. Nice work if you can get it.
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Summary: Provocative, Cogent and Right on Track
Review: Here's a book that comes right out and states that even the best-managed companies, with all their investment in the latest technologies and attention to customer care, are susceptible to failure. It doesn't matter what the industry, be it high technology or retailing, this susceptibility exists. Author Christensen's book presents a set of rules that defy convention on the phenomenon of disruptive innovation, using the real-world lessons of successes and failures of leading companies today. The innovator's dilemma is this: when does one apply the rules of disruptive innovation that goes so much head-to-head against the conventional wisdom? The author offers some good examples of disruptive technologies that helped to redefine the competitive landscape of their respective markets. He shows clearly that these products did not come about as the result of successful companies carrying out solid business practices in established markets. The case is made where these and other products cut into the bottom of the marketplace and evolved to displace competitors at the top end of their field, and displace their dominant technologies as well. Provocative and cogent, this is one of the most talked about business books of our time, and is one that belongs on every project manager's briefcase.
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Summary: Ehhhh...kind'a obvious
Review: The material in this book is fairly obvious; if you have Christensen's papers from HBR and have taken any advanced marketing class, his book is just a repetitive rehash of this stuff. For the novice marketer, and one who hasn't been exposed to "disruptive" technologies and their impacts, this book may be more fulfilling. Otherwise, read his seminal paper in HBR entitled "Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave." If you're an academic or one who loves to study the fundamentals intricacies of this stuff - read the whole thing. Otherwise, it's just more cloud for your brain and more ammo for your boss to ask, "What the hell are you talking about? Get to work."
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Summary: A road map for success and longevity, not market ownership
Review: Christensen articulates why good management and/or success can lead to failure. Similar to our discussions in class on business ecology, the stage of "becoming and institution" with no re-engineering or innovation can lead to death for an organization. This is the notion that Innovator's Dilemma captures and examines. It takes several companies and industries and looks at their history, their framework, their business decisions, and their management to identify what went wrong or what led to their decline. By finding a common thread related to a lack of innovation or, more specifically, an inability to focus on emerging technologies or opportunities based on a current focus on profit and current customer needs and product/service, organizations prevent themselves from or avoid looking to the future. It also becomes challenging to look at the futures because the immediate profit margin may not rational from a business standpoint and there is not enough data on new markets to determine long-term ROI (return on investment). Thus the I never happens, let alone the R. This book made a nice companion to our reading and discussions in the Pepperdine doctoral program in educational technology. As we look at future thinking, business ecology, leadership, effective management strategies, and technologies as part of the larger educational leadership and technology picture, this book gave some key insight into tangible examples of business practices that are vital for success. It also became evident that there are consistencies in business through the years, but that real challenges come with progress and change. The ability for "thinking in the future tense" (another recommended book in the program) and to be adaptive may be the new foundation for business ecology. It may shift from waiting until the need arises to re-engineer and simply infuse this into business acumen as a constant. Going beyond trying to improve products, or coming up with a new marketing approach, organizations need to be aware of entirely new markets and products. This gets tricky, but this book lays out some principals to aid an organization or leader in shifting their approach. It also helps widen perspectives and an organization's view. I found it interesting reading and insightful (while also easy to read and follow), but not a comprehensive guide to market ownership. There are many key factors in staying competitive and ahead--this book offers one and does it with analytical and tangible examples.
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