Reading Order
Innovator SeriesThe Innovator's Dilemma Reading Order
Clayton M. Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (1997) introduced the concept of 'disruptive innovation' — the process by which new entrants with initially inferior products attack established companies from below, improving along a different performance trajectory until they eventually displace the incumbent. The book has become one of the most influential business books of the past three decades.
Where to start
The Innovator's Dilemma
Complete Innovator Series Book List
- 1Buy
The Innovator's Dilemma
Clayton M. Christensen·1997·The foundational statement of the disruptive innovation theory. Start here. - 2Buy
The Innovator's Solution
Clayton M. Christensen·2003·The prescriptive companion — how companies should respond to disruption and create disruptive innovations themselves. Read second. - 3Buy
Competing Against Luck
Clayton M. Christensen·2016·Christensen's 'jobs to be done' theory of customer motivation — complementary to the disruption framework. Read third.
Innovator Series — Frequently Asked Questions
What is 'disruptive innovation'?
Disruptive innovation, as Christensen originally defined it, is a process by which a product or service initially takes root in simple applications at the bottom of a market or in a new market foothold — often with performance inferior to existing products on the metrics incumbents' customers care about — and then relentlessly improves along those metrics until it displaces established competitors. Classic examples include the personal computer (which was initially inferior to minicomputers on every metric mainframe customers cared about but created a new market among students and home users), and eventually displaced them; and Netflix (initially inferior to Blockbuster for new releases, but better for convenience and back catalog). The key insight is that incumbents rationally ignore disruptors, because the disruptors are initially serving markets the incumbents can't profitably serve.
What is the 'innovator's dilemma' itself?
The innovator's dilemma is the paradox that doing everything right — listening to customers, investing in the most profitable products, generating the highest returns — can lead great companies to miss disruptive innovations. Because disruptive innovations initially target small, low-margin markets with inferior products, incumbents correctly conclude that they are not worth pursuing given their cost structures and return requirements. But by the time the disruptive technology improves enough to threaten mainstream markets, it is often too late for the incumbent to respond. The dilemma is that the rational response to short-term competitive pressures makes the company vulnerable to long-term disruption.
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