Friday Flashback: The Real Innovator’s Dilemma

research & innovation processesFrom 2006:

In his celebrated book The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clay Christensen explains how successful companies can be “held captive” by their best customers to the point that they become vulnerable to disruptive innovation from competitors and new entrants, and unable to sustain the types of innovation that brought them those loyal customers in the first place.

He’s absolutely correct, but there are a set of business dilemmas around innovation that are even more profound, pervasive, and culturally entrenched. It is only when you get past the heady idealism of innovation (“the entrepreneur’s competitive advantage”) that the gravity of these dilemmas becomes apparent, and the reasons for thecurrent dearth of innovation in our society become clear.

The three real dilemmas for innovators are:

  1. Most entrepreneurs aren’t innovative (and don’t know how to be)
  2. Most customers don’t really want innovation
  3. Those who really need innovation usually can’t afford it

Read the whole article.

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2 Responses to Friday Flashback: The Real Innovator’s Dilemma

  1. EJ says:

    Off topic (today) and maybe you’ve mentioned this blog but heres the link to a great visual thinking, getting your message across blog:anywayhttp://www.frankejames.com/debate/

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