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The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Management of Innovation and Change) Hardcover – November 19, 2013

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 3,780 ratings
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Named one of 100 Leadership & Success Books to Read in a Lifetime by Amazon Editors

An innovation classic. From Steve Jobs to Jeff Bezos, Clay Christensen’s work continues to underpin today’s most innovative leaders and organizations.

The bestselling classic on disruptive innovation, by renowned author Clayton M. Christensen.

His work is cited by the world’s best-known thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell. In this classic bestseller—one of the most influential business books of all time—innovation expert Clayton Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right—yet still lose market leadership.

Christensen explains why most companies miss out on new waves of innovation. No matter the industry, he says, a successful company with established products will get pushed aside unless managers know how and when to abandon traditional business practices.

Offering both successes and failures from leading companies as a guide, The Innovator’s Dilemma gives you a set of rules for capitalizing on the phenomenon of disruptive innovation.

Sharp, cogent, and provocative—and consistently noted as one of the most valuable business ideas of all time—The Innovator’s Dilemma is the book no manager, leader, or entrepreneur should be without.
Previous page
  1. Part of series
    The Innovator's Dilemma Series
  2. Print length
    288 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Harvard Business Review Press
  5. Publication date
    November 19, 2013
  6. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1 x 9.75 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    142219602X
  8. ISBN-13
    978-1422196021
  9. See all details
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Popular Highlights in this book
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  1. Creating an independent organization, with a cost structure honed to achieve profitability at the low margins characteristic of most disruptive technologies, is the only viable way for established firms to harness this principle.
    Highlighted by 2,824 Kindle readers
  2. One theme common to all of these failures, however, is that the decisions that led to failure were made when the leaders in question were widely regarded as among the best companies in the world.
    Highlighted by 2,605 Kindle readers
  3. Blindly following the maxim that good managers should keep close to their customers can sometimes be a fatal mistake.
    Highlighted by 2,579 Kindle readers
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From the Publisher

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, bestseller

The Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton M. Christensen, book cover

influential, business book, book

Editorial Reviews

Review

A Wall Street Journal and Businessweek bestseller. Named by Fast Company as one of the most influential leadership books in its Leadership Hall of Fame.

“His book, one of the most significant business books of the past 50 years, became a mammoth bestseller, and its title entered the language.” — Fortune magazine

“Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma is the foundational read for managing disruptive innovation.” — Steve Blank, Silicon Valley serial-entrepreneur and academician, as seen in strategy+business magazine

“This is an important read, even if you’re at the very early stages of growing a startup.” — Drew Houston, CEO, Dropbox

Praise for The Innovator’s Dilemma and Clayton M. Christensen:

Forbes
“[Clayton Christensen is] one of the most influential business theorists of the last fifty years.”

The Financial Times
“The Innovator’s Dilemma achieves a rare feat: It is at once a satisfying intellectual solution to a long-standing business puzzle and a practical guide for executives and investors.”

Wired
“. . . Required reading in Silicon Valley, where it has been championed by the likes of Steve Jobs, George Gilder, and Andy Grove.”

The Huffington Post
“A seminal book.”

Bloomberg Businessweek
“A holy book for entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley . . .”

Fortune
“The notion of ‘disruptive technology’ is one of the timeliest ideas of the Internet age. Coined by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, it’s at the heart of his influential book The Innovator’s Dilemma.”

About the Author

Clayton M. Christensen is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is the author of eight critically acclaimed books, including the bestsellers How Will You Measure Your Life?, The Innovator’s Solution, and Disrupting Class. Christensen is the cofounder of Innosight, a management consultancy; Rose Park Advisors, an investment firm; and the Innosight Institute, a nonprofit think tank.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard Business Review Press; Reprint edition (November 19, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 142219602X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1422196021
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 3,780 ratings

About the author

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Clayton M. Christensen

Clayton M. Christensen

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Clayton M. Christensen is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. In addition to his most recent book, Competing Against Luck, he is the author of nine books, including several New York Times bestsellers — The Innovator's Dilemma, The Innovator's Solution, Disrupting Class, and and most recently How Will You Measure Your Life?. Christensen is the co-founder of Innosight, a growth-strategy consultancy; Rose Park Advisors, an investment firm; and the Christensen Institute, a non-profit think tank. In 2011 and 2013, he was named the world’s most influential business thinker by Thinkers50.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
3,780 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

DG
5.0 out of 5 stars View technology and business through a new lens
Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2020
Verified Purchase
As some other reviewers stated:
- A bit text book-like and academic in its format
- It a bit dated in the industry studies

However, after getting through the first chapter or two where he over-explains what he’s going to tell you in the book and how he’s going to tell it, it becomes much easier to read, and enjoyable, as he gets into the meat of it. Stick with it.

I found it interesting to read about the older (mostly late 20th century) industries and disruptive innovations he studied. It was informative in a historical way as well as economic and business. Outside of the excavator industry, the author’s research was on relatively recent and modern technologies (disk drives, printers, computers, discount retail stores, etc). And I found the excavator research to be very illuminating due to the simplicity of the technology.

While reading the book, I began viewing technology and projects at my work, in my industry, and in other industries with a new lens. I began thinking about what have been disruptive innovations over the past 20 years, and why they were disruptive and who were the companies led the way, and profited. And why they succeeded and others failed. What are the current and upcoming disruptive technologies? A new way for you to look at things, not just for management purposes but also for investment.
4 people found this helpful
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Truth Seeker
5.0 out of 5 stars Must-Read
Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2019
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Clayton Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma, while admittedly a bit dry, remains one of the most important business leadership books on the market. Christensen’s incredibly thorough research into industries like mechanical excavators, disk drives, and even retail is empirically supported throughout and provides abundant examples of the phenomenon of disruptive innovation and the context in which it can take industry leaders by surprise. Since the book was first written in the late 1990s, the environment has changed and the pace of technological innovation has increased drastically. These environmental factors, or contextual changes, may require adjustments to the recommendations in this book; however, the foundational principles remain the same—when companies are doing everything right, they can still lose their position of leadership in the market. Companies are incentivized to act in accordance with what their customers want, and if they are not careful, that mentality can preclude them from taking advantage of disruptive opportunities that their current customers are not yet interested in. Christensen’s warnings should be heeded by leaders and managers at all levels of the organization. As the pace of technological innovation continues to increase, leaders will be required to anticipate disruptive innovation to survive, and I look forward to reading about how the Innovator’s Dilemma can be addressed in this age of near-constant innovation and rapid technological advancement.
14 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars despite having good managers, because they fail to find the new ...
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2017
Verified Purchase
The Innovator’s Dilemma is an interesting work written by Clayton M. Christensen in 1997. The book seeks to explain why certain businesses are successful in their ventures and why other firms fail in response to new technologies. Christensen tries to explain throughout the book why some firms, when new technologies enter the market, fail either because they adapt the new technology or not. The author initially believes that new technologies are constantly emerging and all businesses must continually adapt to stay relevant. However, this proves to be false as in his studies not all firms that ignored the new technology failed while not all firms that adapted the new technology succeeded. This is the fundamental dilemma in the book, and Christensen’s main purpose is to figure out a recipe for managers to follow to stay successful when disruptive technologies enter the market. Most of the book revolves around the study of the disk drive market since they were first developed in the 1950’s. The disk drive industry was important because technology was rapidly advancing and smaller drives were being released within a few years of each other. Many of the established firms often chose not to invest in the next smaller disk drive because they did not have enough memory to meet their standards. However, emerging firms would find new markets for the use of smaller drives and also find ways to make them more powerful, eventually drive the existing firms out of business. Christensen eventually concludes that successful businesses often collapse, despite having good managers, because they fail to find the new markets for disruptive technologies while instead supplying current customers with what they currently need.
The goal of the book is to educate people in the business world about how new technologies affect firms and to provide a new way of thinking about disruptive technologies. The end of the piece brings the conclusion that leading firms almost always have set technologies that work well for their current customers, choosing not to invest in new technologies because what they are currently doing is working, current customers do not want change. That is, until new technologies grow to be superior than their predecessors. Christensen does a fantastic job in making his point clear as he provides a plethora of studies across different markets to support his claims. The first half of the book is essentially a detailed history of the disk drive industry that has multiple examples of different firms both choosing to invest in smaller drives and continuing to use their already established, larger drives. He uses this information to create hypothesis’ about why these firms made their decisions and whether it lead them to success or not. Essentially, the author’s process in writing the book is to look at different industries that had disruptive technologies and discover what trends lead to success and what trends lead to failure. He spends a lot of time focusing on a single industry, the disk drive. However, he does bring up several other markets including the mechanical excavator, steel, computer, and discount retailer industries. This variety of different scopes enhances his argument, especially since he sees similar trends across all of these different markets. Many of his examples include established firms choosing not to adopt new technologies because it does not fit their current business motives, but then later being replaced by firms that dared to find new markets for the new technology. His claims are definitely unbiased as all of his conclusions are drawn from the hard evidence that he compiles and delivers to the reader throughout the book about the different firms in those industries. It is almost impossible to disagree with his conclusion since all of his evidence accurately backs up his claims.
Personally, I enjoyed reading the book but mostly because it appeals to my interests. As a young business major, the book is intended for me to read and may directly pertain to my own future. However, this book would be challenging to read for the average person that is not interested in business. The book is confusing at some times and is clearly designed for educated readers with a basic understanding of the business world. I would say that the book is a must-read for managers of a company that may be facing disruptive technologies in their industry as it does provide direct advice for people of that demographic. It is a book that I would certainly recommend to my peers within my major.
Christensen does a decent job in making the book engaging. Some of the chapters where he is providing data are dry and confusing, but he does always provide a summary at the end of chapters to keep the reader focused. A lot of the book is also repetitive in regards to the disk drive industry and the author reiterating his claims about disruptive technologies. Nonetheless, the book is overall definitely a success for its purpose. There is plenty of evidence throughout the book that prove his claims in real-world situations. His main ideas about why firms choose to serve current customers with current technology rather than try to force new technologies on customers also makes logical sense, given the customer-centric market that is present in today’s society. His complex conclusion that disruptive technologies succeed only when they find a market that does not currently exist is confusing, but is definitely supported with his evidence.
In conclusion, the book is a great read for those looking to advance their knowledge in the business world and think about topics that are not usually discussed. The author’s conclusions are creative and complex, but are backed up with hard evidence throughout the piece. The insights and advice brought up by Christensen are useful knowledge to any person studying business and the impact of emerging technologies. This is a book that I will definitely keep in mind in the future and I will recommend to others.
68 people found this helpful
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F. Laxton
5.0 out of 5 stars No whispersync between Kindle book and Audible audiobook, really?
Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2023
Verified Purchase
OK, the book itself is great. But I was very shocked and disappointed that there is no whispersync between the Kindle book and Audible audiobook. So I read a few chapters, and then switched to the audiobook. Starts at the beginning, what?

So I switch between Kindle & Audiobook or vice versa in the middle of a chapter, and it is a lot of work to try to figure out where I am.

I would give it 5 stars otherwise, but this is just inexcusable.

I bought BOTH versions, people! You surely could put in the effort to set up whispersync!

So by the publisher not putting in the work to set up whispersync, I have to manually do the guesswork each time I switch between Kindle and Audible. And no, it is not as easy as switching on a chapter - they are quite long.

Attention to details - it is important.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Maulik
5.0 out of 5 stars Great insights on managing disruptive technology!
Reviewed in India on January 19, 2024
Verified Purchase
The book is a crisp data supported guide on how a leader can look to identify and handle disruptive technology.

The perspectives offered by the author are logical and easy to understand.

Makes for a great read!
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Alberto Rodriguez
5.0 out of 5 stars MUST READ!
Reviewed in Germany on July 15, 2023
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Must read book
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Monica
5.0 out of 5 stars Consegna puntualissima, condizione ottime
Reviewed in Italy on August 5, 2021
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Acquistato questo libro come regalo per un mio carissimo amico. Arrivato puntuale e in ottime condizioni, la copertina non è rigida ma dentro il pacco non ha subìto alcuna imperfezione.

Consigliato! E molto apprezzato
One person found this helpful
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altaix
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best business books
Reviewed in Canada on June 22, 2019
Verified Purchase
Not very easy to read, but it is very insipiring and lots of relevant examples.
2 people found this helpful
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Fernando Hernandez
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for anyone that leads a firm in the new economy
Reviewed in Mexico on February 28, 2019
Verified Purchase
Timeline less book that talks you in and about innovation. Clearly design thinking and fundamental design in FINANCIAL SERVICES may benefit of the implementation Clayton"s ideas and messages.
Though In my opinion, innovation through technology doesn't needto be cheaper than mainstream. It just has to be different with a different business model or attributes, based on a customer profiling and expectations
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