The Innovator's Dilemma
by Clayton M. Christensen
Christensen's theory of disruptive innovation: good companies fail because they listen to their best customers and ignore cheaper, worse technologies that improve until they take the market, as in disk drives, steel minimills and excavators. It is academic in tone and one of the most influential business books ever written.
Read it if…
you want to understand why incumbents fail and how to see disruption coming.
Skip it if…
you want a quick business read; it is a theory with data.
Three things you will actually use
- Listening to your best customers can kill you.
- Disruption starts at the low end and moves up.
- Small markets do not solve the growth needs of large companies, so they are ignored.
Do this first
Identify the cheaper, worse alternative to your product or skill that is improving, and take it seriously.
Our verdict
Influential and rigorous.
Compare with other Entrepreneurship books
Pour Your Heart Into It
Howard Schultz and Dori Jones Yang · Entrepreneurship
Culture as strategy, told by the founder.
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