Companies struggle with innovation, and Greg Bernarda believes he knows why. They’re still operating in the 20th century, a world where exploitation – executing and scaling products and services in known environments – is key currency for success. To compete in the 21st century, companies need to…
Technology has forever altered the leadership and business strategy landscapes, and it continues to enable disruption across nearly every industry. Surviving – and succeeding – is one of the greatest challenges managers face, and it requires not only a different mindset, but also a …
The breakneck pace of development, particularly in technology, fuels growth and prosperity around the world. Yet, for all the positive value created by constant innovation, there’s a dismal downside: increased global inequality. But what if the world’s innovators turned their sights on…
Karen Dillon will help you figure out your job. Not your profession – the “job” that your customers are trying to accomplish. “Jobs To Be Done” theory, as described in “Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice” (HarperCollins, October 2016), co-authored by Clay Christensen and Dillon, explains this kind of job: it’s the progress your customer wants to achieve when they’re struggling. It can be small, like bottled iced coffee as a more convenient way to perk up in the morning, or huge, like the almost universal switch from film to digital photography.
Disruptive change is accelerating, enabled by the frantic pace of technological advancement. Mark W. Johnson, authority on innovation and co-founder of Innosight, has identified the businesses at greatest risk: “The companies most vulnerable to disruption today are those at the top of their game. In mature industries, incumbent leaders are extremely vulnerable to competitors offering greater simplicity, convenience, accessibility, and affordability.” He projects that over the next decade half the S&P 500 index will have turned over, thanks to disruptive innovation.
Conventional wisdom casts online learning as a disruptive force that will revolutionize higher education by lowering costs and expanding access. But a recent survey has found that costs for online learning are no less than, and in some cases more than, costs for traditional instruction. How could this so-called disruptive force have resulted in only an expansion of the status quo?
Taddy Hall and Karen Dillon, partners of Jobs Theory creator Clay Christensen, team up to walk through a compelling real-world application of Jobs Theory in this video. After introducing the theory, Hall applies it to a case study of International Delight’s recently introduced iced coffee line. Hall looks at the jobs performed by iced coffee in general, i.e. why consumers “hire” it every day, and then walks through the innovation process that created an entirely new product category in grocery store refrigerators.
The transportation industry is changing. Vehicles are getting smarter and smaller, environments are being designed on a more human scale, and companies are rushing to innovate in the face of these changes. Or as Jeffrey Schnapp, of Harvard’s “idea foundry” metaLAB, describes it: “a sense that the world of mobility is undergoing a significant transformation.”
The Chinese smartphone market has produced companies, leaders, and, of course, phones. But its most significant output is perhaps more unique: a user-centric innovation by Xiaomi that treats hardware as an afterthought rather than the main driver of sales. Clay Shirky, an NYU professor living in China for this academic year (he returns to teaching at New York University later this year), has been studying the $20 billion start-up and its techniques – the centerpiece of his new book, “Little Rice” (Columbia Global Reports).
No one would argue that there’s much work to be done with America’s infrastructure. It’s one of our President-elect’s priorities in his first 100 days. But how should it be approached?
Africa’s economic slowdown, triggered by a plunge in commodity prices, has raised lingering questions about the continent’s future: Is Africa’s population boom more of a curse than a blessing? Can its economies generate the jobs necessary to employ a workforce projected to reach 830 million people by 2050? Will its leaders deliver the education and infrastructure required to unleash the productivity of its people?
The Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation hopes to answer these questions and more through the work of its new research division focused on global prosperity. Led by researcher Efosa Ojomo, a champion of creating economic prosperity through disruptive innovation, his team will examine how emerging markets in sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South America, and Asia can create prosperity by focusing on innovations that build new markets and spur long-term economic growth and employment.
One of the most important books of 2016.
In Rwanda, more than 80% of the population lives in homes with a dirt floor. In India, only 25% of the population can afford a refrigerator. Such poverty-stricken countries are not markets for business – or are they?
Do you really understand what your product means to your customer?
The holiday rush is no reason to stop innovating. Thomas A. Stewart and Patricia O’Connell have designed a five-step program to help you make the most of your seasonal employees, allowing them to contribute to improvements that will help your business all year round. Temporary employees present an opportunity for you to try new reporting structures, practices, and processes.
Are your services as carefully designed as your physical widgets? Does your service bridge the gap between your customers’ experiences and the advancement of your strategic goals?
Have some sticky problems you can’t seem to work out internally? Try working with your partner companies in other industries, urge innovation gurus Jeff Dyer and Nathan Furr.
You’re collecting data, but are you using it to build connections to your customers? Is it meeting your customers where they are, moving “at the speed of content?”
Like it or not, at some point in your life, you will live with a robot, says Guy Hoffman. And that’s why the renowned robotics expert is on a mission to make robots more fluent, more engaging, more graceful, and well – more likeable.
American Girl doesn’t just sell dolls; it sells stories steeped in periods and places in U.S. history. With its Reese’s Minis, Hershey’s isn’t only marketing candy; it’s selling an easy…
Yes, virtual reality (VR) can make you more empathetic. And, according to renowned VR guru Jeremy Bailenson, it can also cut business costs, boost employee productivity, help you save money…
Last year, companies collectively spent $680 billion gambling on R&D. And for the most part, their bets haven’t paid off. It doesn’t have to be this way, according to Clay…
There’s no question Tesla is a remarkable brand. Just the name evokes emotionally charged responses from both its critics and its champions. It records quarterly losses by the millions, and rarely hits company goals or meets new vehicle launch deadlines. Yet, Tesla has what your organization (and every other) covets…
Trying to satisfy your customers is a misguided mission. There is no such thing as a perfectly and permanently satisfied customer, argues Gabor George Burt, an innovation pioneer and mastermind on re-imagining market boundaries…
You’re on a mission to know more about your customers. Stop. The extraordinary variety and volume of data you’re collecting at unprecedented speed and analyzing in sophisticated ways while hoping it leads to successful innovation isn’t working…
Is family a source of career conflict for you? Stew Friedman, the world’s leading work/life integration expert, would take that bet. But more than ever, he says, it’s not spouses and children causing the most angst – it’s mothers and fathers…
What if we could grow delicious, nutrient-dense food, indoors anywhere in the world? Caleb Harper is doing it. Food is in crisis. By 2050, the world won’t have enough food…
Most of us believe we know what purpose our products serve. We assume we understand, we really know, our customers – what they want, and how and where they want…
Collaborative consumption. On-demand services. The gig economy. Peer-to-peer business. Numerous names describe the same phenomenon: the rise of technology-enabled sharing. The likes of Uber, Airbnb, TaskRabbit, Lending Club and Rent…
Why do the vast majority of innovations fall so far short of ambitions? Companies have never had more sophisticated tools and techniques in their arsenal. More resources than ever –…
By the end of the decade, every company will be a software company, predicts Robert Tercek, business futurist and digital media pioneer. We’re entering a new era defined by data…
Our cars are getting smarter. They dictate (and recalculate) directions, sync with our phones, help us park or switch lanes, and brake if we don’t before it’s too late. The…
There was a time not long ago when commerce flowed linearly. Companies produced products, shipped them out and sold them to consumers. Single product lines were profitable. Today, not as…
In life, you can do everything right and still fail. Same goes for business. A well run, seemingly thriving company nose dives, succumbing to disruption. It’s the classic innovator’s dilemma…
Companies find it increasingly challenging to justify long-term, risky R&D investments. Innovation and strategy expert Gary Pisano believes it’s time to consider a different financing model, and he draws inspiration…
The way we think about it and get it done, how businesses organize it, and its impact on global competitiveness and quality of life – “work” is undergoing a sea…
It’s no secret large organizations have an innovation problem. With deep resource pools and even deeper pockets, they should be breakthrough masters. But when it comes to execution, complexity and…
First introduced in 1995 by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen, disruptive innovation theory is a zeitgeist of modern management thinking. It has inarguably and fundamentally changed how the world…
Small businesses signify the American Dream, and start-ups are the movers and shakers, embodying entrepreneurial spirit. Then there are the large, billion-dollar enterprise corporations – household names with deep pockets…
Surviving disruption – major, game-changing innovation – is one of the greatest challenges managers in established firms face. On one hand, we’ve been warned disruption can sneak up and quickly…
Familiar things are disappearing before our eyes. Remember photo albums, audio CDs and DVDs? Maps or road atlases? Even the trusty GPS unit has been replaced by an app that…
There is perhaps no greater force for change than a powerful idea. Thousands of ideas have come to life through the Aspen Ideas Festival, commanding the attention – and inspiring…
It is a rare CEO who doesn’t list innovation as a top priority. But innovation remains an elusive beast for most. Massive R&D investments have been made, processes built, training…
As the U.S. infrastructure crisis reaches a fever pitch in news coverage, public opinion and the next election cycle, Harvard’s Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s new book Move: Putting America’s Infrastructure Back…
Have your house cleaned by Handy or Homejoy; your groceries bought and delivered by Instacart; your clothes washed by Washio. TaskRabbit will send someone to pick up a last-minute gift;…
If there’s one thing Americans can agree on, it’s the sorry state of our country’s infrastructure. We’re stuck, quite literally, and the inability to move affects every aspect of business…
We’re all racing to be more entrepreneurial, to spark – or reignite – innovation that creates breakthrough products, establishes new markets and brings in new customers. It’s not just for…
Innovation is a top priority for enterprises around the world. The quickening pace of technological change and mounting pressure of global competition are helping fuel the urgency. But leaders can’t…
Management has regressed, believes Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen – in large part because innovation has become a numbers game rather than “substantive discussion about things not known.” But,…
Innovation. It’s a term we hear nearly every day, yet it still feels intangible, inaccessible and, at times, downright impossible. “Many managers have a hard time applying [innovative thinking and…
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