Free translation of executive summary from The Innovator's Solution book on the dilemma of the innovator and its possible solution

    Free translation of the executive summary from The Innovator's Solution by Clayton Christensen about the dilemma of the innovator and its possible solution, 13 points.

    1. Never say “yes” to a strategy aimed at consumers and markets that look attractive to a developed competitor . Continue to send the team to the previous design step until they identify a niche that a developed competitor will be glad to ignore or will be glad to leave it altogether. If you create this asymmetric motivation, your competitors will help you win.

    2. If your team is targeting consumers who ALREADY use fairly good products, send them to the previous step so that they try to find an opportunity to compete with “non-consumption”. If your customers are delighted with the opportunity to have a simple, inexpensive product due to the fact that they have never consumed similar products before, then all the methods of customer satisfaction that you taught in the basics of marketing will work simply and inexpensively. It is also much easier in comparison with the alternative in the form of massive investments necessary for consumers to switch to a breakthrough technology with an already developed technology (with which they are already quite comfortable).

    3. If there is no "non-consumption", ask your team to explore the possibility of a breakthrough in the "lower" segment. They must develop a business model that will help to extract attractive profits at discounted prices required to attract consumers from the “lower” market segment, consumers who cannot use all the functionality for which they currently have to pay. If such an option is impossible to find, then do not invest, or at least do not invest with the expectation that such an investment will create a fast-growing business.

    4. If the project leader uses the phrase “if only we could force the consumer ...” - stop the conversation. Send the command to the previous step to find how to help the consumer to make convenient and cheap what they are already trying to do. Dreamy competition with clear consumer priorities has ruined the career of some fairly good people.

    5. If the product team or marketing plan is focused on market segments reflecting the area (market) of your organization or if the target market is segmented by parameters for which data is already available (by product type, price, demographics), send the team back. Ask them to segment the market so that segmentation reflects the “work” that consumers are trying to do.

    6. If the improvement plan created by the product team implies that the main vector of competition will not change, and that improvements that bring good profit in the past will bring it in the future, pay attention to the “lower” segment. Often there you can find an opportunity to change the main vector of competition.

    7. If your “breakthrough” product or service is still not good enough and your team is enthusiastic about industry standards and related outsourcing and partnership deals, put a large STOP sign. If you implement modularity and open standards too early, or if you keep your architecture closed while the main vector of competition is changing, you will have to fight hard for success. It’s better to develop competencies where money will be made in the future, rather than clinging to the skills that made you successful in the past.

    8. If your team assures you that the project will be successful since the new project matches the core competency of your company, tell them that you cannot deal with vague concepts. Ask to answer the following three questions:

      • - Do we have the resources for success?
      • - Will our processes and approaches that we have learned to successfully work together in existing businesses contribute to what needs to be done to succeed in the new project?
      • - Will the set of existing values ​​or criteria that employees now use to prioritize some things over others allow it to receive the necessary priority over other initiatives that also claim time, money and talent?


      Use the answers to these questions to select the appropriate organizational structure and suitable parent organization for this project.

    9. Also ask these three questions about each company that owns the channels used in the new project. Not only you matter. The processes and values ​​of these companies, their methods and motivations can lead to the fact that your project goes off the rails or gets up without even leaving the station.

    10. Unfortunately, you may have to stop trusting managers you have already learned to trust. Those managers in your organization who have been most consistent in achieving results in the past may be the least suitable for success in new growing businesses. When choosing a management team for a new project, do not look at the skills that may be needed for new growing projects, do not look at the amount of responsibility accepted in the past. Look in their resume for the problems they were trying to solve and compare with the problems that the new project should face.

    11. Make sure that in the first years after the start of the project, the development team remains convinced that they are not sure which strategy is the best (in terms of products, consumers and applications). Insist that the team give you a plan to accelerate the emergence of a viable strategy. Stop the implementation of decisive plans for the implementation of any strategy, while there is no evidence that it (this strategy) is working.

    12. Be impatient in anticipation of profits. When someone tells you, as a leading manager, that you must endure years of constant losses before a new business becomes big and profitable, it signals a plan to “squeeze” breakthrough technology into an “established” technology in an established market. Some investments in “established” technologies with deep dependencies and connections throughout the value chain can undoubtedly require years of massive investment. Let established competitors do this. In the conditions of a “breakthrough”, the patient expectation of several years of losses usually only allows the team to implement the wrong strategy for a long time.

    13. Continue to grow your parent company so you can be patient while waiting for the growth of a new project. A “breakthrough” and in particular competition with “non-consumption” requires a long “overclock” before it is possible to make a sharp take-off. If the growth of the main company slows down and you click on a new business so that it starts to take off faster, then you click on management so that they make fatal mistakes. The other side of this issue is also important. If you plan to lead a new project and corporate management says that your project needs to grow very large and very fast, then in fact they tell you that they will make you “squeeze” your “breakthrough” technology into the formed market. When you feel this, don’t take on the project. Most likely you will not succeed.


    Also popular now: