In the worldwide bestseller 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. How? By ignoring "disruptive technologies"-new, cheaper innovations that initially target small customer segments but evolve to displace the reigning product.
Now, Christensen and coauthor Michael E. Raynor cut the Gordian knot of the "innovator's dilemma" with The Innovator's Solution. This groundbreaking book reveals that innovation is not as unpredictable as most managers have come to believe. While the outcomes of past innovations seem random, the process by which innovations are packaged and shaped within companies is very predictable. By understanding and managing the forces that influence this process, companies can shape high-octane business plans that create truly disruptive growth.
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.
Comprehensive yet practical, The Innovator's Solution is an actionable prescription for innovation-driven, profitable growth.
"A good business book makes managers stop and think. A great business book teaches managers how to stop and think. This is a great book. It is hard to imagine an executive team that would not benefit from devoting an entire day to discussing it."
-Geoffrey Moore, Chairman and Founder, TCG Advisors, and author, Crossing the Chasm and Living on the Fault Line
"In The Innovator's Solution, Christensen and Raynor address the holy grail of all organizations: how to generate growth and sustain it over long periods. Avoiding the temptation to provide simplistic formulas, they guide the reader through carefully constructed frameworks that teach how to think about the issues that limit-and provide-growth to organizations."
-Dr. Andrew S. Grove, Chairman of the Board, Intel
"Christensen and Raynor have done a superb job of creating a framework for helping to understand the industry dynamics and for planning your own growth alternatives."
-Pekka Ala-Pietilä, President, Nokia Corporation
"Singapore, as a small nation, needs to be innovative and sensitive to disruptive changes more than other countries. Christensen and Raynor have provided an excellent framework to reduce the randomness of the innovation process. This framework will help in our effort to nurture an environment conducive for enterprises to create and capitalize on disruptive innovations."
-Teo Ming Kian, Chairman, Singapore Economic Development Board
"The Innovator's Solution goes directly to the heart of why large companies have failed to sustain innovation. Christensen and Raynor have a deep insight into the challenges that innovative companies face, and they propose practical, realistic solutions to the dilemmas of innovation. This book will be extremely useful to all managers who are committed to using innovation to sustain their growth."
-Bill George, former Chairman and CEO, Medtronic, Inc.
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SC Chiu said on Apr 12, 2010 | Add your feedback
Kenlaw 
I gave this book (published by Harvard Business Press in 2003) three stars only because it did not provide organizational managers with many “fresh” ideas on how to effectively achieve innovation within the firm. Several concepts (e.g., firm tangible/intangible resources and competence, disruptive t ... (continue)
I gave this book (published by Harvard Business Press in 2003) three stars only because it did not provide organizational managers with many “fresh” ideas on how to effectively achieve innovation within the firm. Several concepts (e.g., firm tangible/intangible resources and competence, disruptive technologies, marketing segmentation, etc) raised by the authors, Clayton M. Christensen and Michael E. Rayno, have been widely discussed and debated in many other business books, such as Michael Porter’s famous Competitive Advantage published in 1980. The innovation process and outcomes are interdependent (also path dependent) in many regards, and to achieve disruptive growth often requires several right factors from both inside (firm resources, structure, etc.) and outside (e.g., macro economics, industry competition and density) of the organization. However, it seems that the authors emphasize the former and downplay the importance of the elements external to the firm that most medium and small businesses are likely to have no control of. Also, the definition of “disruptive innovation” and “disruptive growth” were not clearly defined upfront in the book, which can create some confusion for readers who are not yet familiar with such business topic.
Overall, I think this book can be useful for the undergraduate students, first-year MBA students, or those who want to understand the fundamental concepts of innovation, but might not be suitable for business managers or practitioners who are seeking more concrete solutions and ideas to obtain organizational sustainable innovation. Just my two cents.
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