Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog: Deming, lean thinking, innovation, customer focus, continual improvement, six sigma.
June 16, 2007
Innovation Thinking with Christensen

In my opinion Clayton Christensen offers truly insightful ideas on innovation and management. He presents the rare management advice that is not only good but also new - an incredibly rare combination. The current issue of Business Week includes an interview with him: Clayton Christensen’s Innovation Brain:

Yes. The problem is when you say “listen to your customers,” your customers are only going to lead you in a direction that they want to go in. Generally, that will never lead you to disruptive growth. You’ve got to find that new set of customers, and listen to them and follow them. That’s the trick. Once you have customers, they hold you captive to their needs.

It’s hard for me to see what will disrupt Google. I think they’ve got a pretty good run ahead of them.

While some of Christensen’s ideas are new he also builds on existing ideas. The idea on customer focus being a potential trap was discussed by Deming a great deal. Interesting point on Google, I must agree, though it makes me nervous to think that way: it is easier to mess up success than to fix a mess. I will be interested to read his ideas on the health care system.

Related: Six Keys to Building New Markets by Unleashing Disruptive Innovation - Management Improvement Leaders - articles by Christensen - The Innovators Solution - What Job Does Your Product Do?

New Economics, by W. Edwards Deming, page 7:

Does the customer invent new product of service? The customer generates nothing. No customer asked for electric lights… No customer asked for photography… No customer asked for an automobile… No customer asked for an integrated circuit.

One Response to “Innovation Thinking with Christensen”

  1. Curious Cat » Some Good IT Business Ideas Says:

    “In most companies the IT department is an expensive bottleneck. Getting them to make you a simple web form could take months. Enter Wufoo. Now if the marketing department wants to put a form on the web, they can do it themselves in 5 minutes…”

Leave a Reply



Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog © curiouscat.com 2005-2008 powered by WordPress

Internal Links

Author

John Hunter

Categories


Other

Search Blog

Web Search

Management Improvement web search

Recent Comments

  • Tom Chwastyk: This reminds both of Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints (managers often optimize to local goals...
  • Lorenzo: Nice presentation by Mary Poppendieck. Where can I get a copy of the slide deck used in the presentation?...
  • Nick McCormick: John, Right on the mark. Asking for feedback and doing nothing about it is a huge demoralizer....
  • WillG: I work for a giant company and we have started the mid-year review cycle. Oh, how I would love to use the...
  • david foster: Funny and pathetic. “It is hard to imagine what management system creates such...
  • Anonymous: I arrived and this page after searching for a blog about psychology. I must say it wasn’t what I was...
  • Christina: I strongly agree with you. Well done for this blog you’re doing a really good job.. Well, being morphed...
  • Matthew: I’m glad that this company is realizing the benefits of manufacturing in the USA. The more Americans...

Archives

June 2007
M T W T F S S
« May   Jul »
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930