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The Innovator's Solution By Clayton M. Christensen & Michael E. Raynor

In the worldwide best seller The Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton M. Christensen exposed a crushing paradox behind the failure of many industry leaders: By doing what good companies were supposed to do--focus on pleasing their most profitable customers--leaders were paving the way for their own demise. Following up is his latest groundbreaking book - The Innovator's Solution, co-authored by Michael E. Raynor, a director at Deloitte Research.

Clayton M. Christensen, D.B.A., is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration, with a joint appointment in technology and operations management and general management, at the Harvard Business School.

His research and teaching center on management of technological innovation and finding new markets for new technologies.

Christensen's publications have received numerous academic awards, including the 1997 Global Business Book Award for his book The Innovator's Dilemma. He serves as a consultant to the management teams of many of the world's leading corporations.

According to the authors, innovation is not as unpredictable as most managers have come to believe. Although the outcomes of past innovations seem random, the process by which innovations are packaged and shaped within companies is very predictable. Drawing on years of in-depth research and using new theories tested in hundreds of companies across many industries, the authors identify the processes that create successful innovations and show managers how to tailor their strategies to the changing circumstances of a dynamic world.

About the book

The Growth Paradox 

At best one company in ten is able to sustain profitable growth. Yet capital markets demand that all companies seek it relentlessly and mercilessly punish those who fail. Why is consistent, persistent growth so difficult to achieve? Surprisingly, it's not for lack of great ideas or capable managers, nor is it because customers are too fickle or innovation too unpredictable. Innovation fails, say Clayton M. Christensen and Michael E. Raynor, because organizations unwittingly strip the disruptive potential from new ideas before they ever see the light of day. 

In his worldwide bestseller The Innovator's Dilemma, Christensen explained how industry leaders get blindsided by disruptive innovations precisely because they focus too closely on their most profitable customers and businesses. The Innovator's Solution shows how companies get to the other side of this dilemma, creating disruptions rather than being destroyed by them. 

Drawing on years of in-depth research and illustrated by company examples across many industries, Christensen and Raynor argue that innovation can be a predictable process that delivers sustainable, profitable growth. They identify the forces that cause managers to make bad decisions as they package and shape new ideas-and offer new frameworks to help managers create the right conditions, at the right time, for a disruption to succeed. The Innovator's Solution addresses a wide range of issues, including: 

How can we tell if an idea has disruptive potential? 

Which competitive situations favor incumbents, and which favor entrants? 

Which customer segments are primed to embrace a new offering? 

Which activities should we outsource, and which should we keep in-house? 

How should we structure and fund a new venture? 

How do we choose the right managers to lead it? 

How can we position ourselves where profits will be made in the future? 

Revealing counterintuitive insights that will change your perspective on innovation forever, this landmark book shows how to create a disruptive growth engine that fuels ongoing success. 

Source: Amazon

Others who read the book say:

From Publishers Weekly

Christensen's earlier book examined how focusing on profits can destroy even well-run corporations, while this book focuses on companies expanding by being "disruptors" who are able to outpace their entrenched competition. The authors examine the nine business decisions integral to growth, including product development, organizational structure, financing and key customer base.

Fast Company, September 2003

"...valuable tool for every aspiring upstart - whether you're inside a billion-dollar company or have a billion-dollar glimmer in your eye."

Below is an excerpt of the review by Chuck Frey as appeared in The Innovator's Solution is an invaluable road map for creating perpetual business growth and innovation

The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth by Clayton Christensen and Michael Raynor was hailed by many as one of the best business books of 2003 - and with good reason. This excellent book uncovers new facets of the nature of organizational innovation and proposes a common-sense theory that can help organizations move toward a state of perpetual innovation.

The Innovator's Solution is the much-anticipated sequel to The Innovator's Dilemma, which explored in detail why it's so hard for organizations to maintain an innovative culture for an extended period of time.

Thoroughly researched and illuminated by dozens of real-world case histories, The Innovator's Solution is a must-read for entrepreneurs and executives like. If you lead a small company, this book should help you to identify some potentially disruptive business opportunities. If you lead or manage a larger, successful company, The Innovator's Solution can alert you to potential vulnerabilities in your thinking that could lead to future failures.

The Innovator's Solution covers a variety of valuable themes, including how to out-think your most powerful competitors, how to select the right target customers and understand their needs accurately, how to get the scope of the new business correct, how to avoid commoditization, working with the right sources and amounts of funding, and the role of senior executives in leading employees toward a culture of perpetual innovation. In short, this excellent book is a practical "compass" for creating growth in the new millennium.

.The Innovator's Solution is a fascinating book that does a great job of explaining how to transform your organization into an "engine" of disruptive growth. They build their case with great care, backing it up at each step with relevant case histories and facts. If the book as one flaw, it is that no such company actually exists that is has been able to maintain a cycle of disruptive growth for more than a few years at a time. Still, I believe that the detailed roadmap that the authors provide is both realistic and achievable.