The Innovator’s Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business by Clayton M. Christensen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Clayton Christensen’s analysis of how new technologies disrupt old ones. It’s a very specific mechanism; new ways of doing things can provide services and products to slightly different market niches than existing ones. The new products and services aren’t initially as good as the existing ones, but with time and development iterations, they end up improving, then getting better than the existing products and services. The older companies may have excellent management and great products, but their customer base has very specific needs which they can best serve by staying focused on them. By the time they pay attention to the newer competitors, the competition is strong enough that it is very easy for their existing customers to simply switch to the new product or service.
Local interest – one of the examples that Christensen uses is that of the Birmingham steel industry from the 1960s through to the early 1980s when the first large-scale layoffs occurred as plant the electric arc furnace began eating into markets for U.S Steel’s Bessemer-process steel production.
Excellent read. You need to understand this business pattern.
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