The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

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Harvard Business Review Press, Nov 19, 2013 - Business & Economics - 288 pages
An innovation classic. From Steve Jobs to Jeff Bezos, Clay Christensen’s work continues to underpin today’s most innovative leaders and organizations.

The bestselling classic on disruptive innovation, by renowned author Clayton M. Christensen.

His work is cited by the world’s best-known thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell. In this classic bestseller—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.

Sharp, cogent, and provocative—and consistently noted as one of the most valuable business ideas of all time—The Innovator’s Dilemma is the book no manager, leader, or entrepreneur should be without.
 

Contents

How Can Great Firms Fail? Insights from the Hard Disk Drive Industry
3
Value Networks and the Impetus to Innovate
29
Disruptive Technological Change in the Mechanical Excavator Industry
61
What Goes Up Cant Go Down
77
Managing Disruptive Technological Change
97
Give Responsibility for Disruptive Technologies to Organizations Whose Customers Need Them
101
Match the Size of the Organization to the Size of the Market
121
Discovering New and Emerging Markets
143
How to Appraise Your Organizations Capabilities and Disabilities
161
Performance Provided Market Demand and the Product Life Cycle
183
Managing Disruptive Technological Change A Case Study
205
The Dilemmas of Innovation A Summary
225
Book Group Guide
231
Index
239
ATA
253
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About the author (2013)

Clayton M. Christensen is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is the author of eight critically acclaimed books, including the bestsellers How Will You Measure Your Life?, The Innovator’s Solution, and Disrupting Class. Christensen is the cofounder of Innosight, a management consultancy; Rose Park Advisors, an investment firm; and the Innosight Institute, a nonprofit think tank.

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