The Innovator's Dilemma

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• Finding new applications and markets for these new products seems to be a capability that each of these firms exhibited once, upon entry, and then apparently lost. It was as if the leading firms were held captive by their customers, enabling attacking entrant firms to topple the incumbent industry leaders each time a disruptive technology emerged.
• With numerous case studies of diverse industries, this business analysis investigates how a company's adoption of "sustaining" and "disruptive" emerging technologies affects its long-term stability.
• "Easy for managers today to vow: 'I won't make that mistake!' Christensen brilliantly shows how they make the mistake anyway....This book ought to chill any executive who feels bulletproof--and inspire entrepreneurs aiming their guns."
• Destined to be controversial, this analysis of the new business paradigm shows how firms that do "everything right" can nevertheless fail because of new technologies and disruptions in the market structure. Reprint.
• How Great Firms Fail By Doing Everything Right

  Harvard professor Clayton M. Christensen demonstrates in the most revolutionary business book in years why outstanding companies that did everything right-were in tune with the competition, listened to customers, and invested aggressively in new technologies still lost their market leadership when confronted with disruptive changes in technology and market structure ... and he tells how to avoid a similar fate as business races online into the twenty-first century. The Innovator's Dilemma eloquently demonstrates a shattering paradox: that the best of conventional good business practices can ultimately weaken a great firm.

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  There is a certain type of technological innovation that Christensen labels disruptive technology, which mainstream customers initially reject. Following these customers causes well-managed firms to allow strategic innovations to languish. The solution? Create a subsidiary entirely focused on the emerging market, one that is free to be visionary while courting an unorthodox customer base and staying poised to catch the next great wave of industry growth. Sharp, cogent, and provocative, The Innovator's Dilemma is one of the most talked about business books of our time-and something that none of today's executives will dare to be without.

  What do the Honda Supercub, Intel's 8088 processor, and hydraulic excavators have in common? They are all examples of disruptive technologies that helped to redefine the competitive landscape of their respective markets. These products did not come about as the result of successful companies carrying out sound business practices in established markets. In The Innovator's Dilemma, author Clayton M. Christensen shows how these and other products cut into the low end of the marketplace and eventually evolved to displace high-end competitors and their reigning technologies.

  At the heart of The Innovator's Dilemma is how a successful company with established products keeps from being pushed aside by newer, cheaper products that will, over time, get better and become a serious threat. Christensen writes that even the best-managed companies, in spite of their attention to customers and continual investment in new technology, are susceptible to failure no matter what the industry, be it hard drives or consumer retailing. Succinct and clearly written, The Innovator's Dilemma is an important book that belongs on every manager's bookshelf. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards

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