The innovator’s solution : creating and sustaining successful growth

In the worldwide best seller The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton M. Christensen exposed a crushing paradox behind the failure of many industry leaders: By doing what good companies were supposed to do–focus on pleasing their most profitable customers–leaders were paving the way for their own demise. How? By ignoring disruptive technologies–new, cheaper innovations that initially target small customer segments but evolve to displace the reigning product. Now, Christensen and co-author Michael E. Raynor cut the Gordian knot of the innovator’s dilemma with The Innovator’s Solution. This groundbreaking book reveals that innovation is not as unpredictable as most managers have come to believe. Although the outcomes of past innovations seem random, the process by which innovations are packaged and shaped within companies is very predictable. By understanding and managing the forces that influence this process, companies can shape high-octane business plans that create truly disruptive growth. Drawing on years of in-depth research and using new theories tested in hundreds of companies across many industries, the authors identify the processes that create successful innovations and show managers how to tailor their strategies to the changing circumstances of a dynamic world. Clayton M. Christensen, D.B.A., is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration, with a joint appointment in technology and operations management and general management, at the Harvard Business School. Michael E. Raynor, D.B.A., is a director at Deloitte Research, the thought leadership arm of Deloitte & Touche and Deloitte Consulting.