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The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Management of Innovation and Change) Kindle Edition
Customers reported quality issues in this eBook. This eBook has: Typos, Poor Image Quality . The publisher has been notified to correct these issues. |
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. 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 bestsellerone of the most influential business books of all timeinnovation expert Clayton Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything rightyet 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 provocativeand consistently noted as one of the most valuable business ideas of all timeThe Innovator’s Dilemma is the book no manager, leader, or entrepreneur should be without.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarvard Business Review Press
- Publication dateDecember 15, 2015
- File size4.3 MB
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
At the heart of The Innovator's Dilemma is how a successful company with established products keeps from being pushed aside by newer, cheaper products that will, over time, get better and become a serious threat. Christensen writes that even the best-managed companies, in spite of their attention to customers and continual investment in new technology, are susceptible to failure no matter what the industry, be it hard drives or consumer retailing. Succinct and clearly written, The Innovator's Dilemma is an important book that belongs on every manager's bookshelf. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards
From Booklist
Review
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.”
From the Publisher
About the Author
DON LESLIE has appeared on and off Broadway as well as in over fifteen feature films and various episodic television shows. He is an accomplished audiobook narrator and also voices commercials, on-air narrations, and movie trailers.
From AudioFile
Product details
- ASIN : B012BLTM6I
- Publisher : Harvard Business Review Press
- Accessibility : Learn more
- Publication date : December 15, 2015
- Edition : Illustrated
- Language : English
- File size : 4.3 MB
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 365 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781633691797
- ISBN-13 : 978-1633691797
- Page Flip : Enabled
- Part of series : The Innovator's Dilemma Series
- Best Sellers Rank: #560,484 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #3 in Industrial Management & Leadership
- #70 in Business Systems & Planning
- #189 in Strategic Management
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

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.
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Customers find the book well-written and consider it one of the best business books they've read. They appreciate its insightful knowledge about innovation, with one customer noting it's the best resource for understanding disruptive products and technologies. The content receives mixed feedback, with some customers describing it as a classic while others find it slightly dated in its research.
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Customers find the book well written and engaging, with several describing it as one of the best business books they've read.
"...Great book!" Read more
"Thanks for a great book, which is helping me in my research...." Read more
"Good book for anyone who wants to venture into entrepreneurship or just see the pitfalls of sustaining and disruptive technologies/corporations..." Read more
"...It is a great read and very informative...." Read more
Customers find the book provides great insights about innovation, with numerous useful examples, making it a brilliant resource for those working in the field.
"...and the various responses by organizations are well laid out and thought provoking...." Read more
"...It is a great read and very informative...." Read more
"Very insightful, well written, the ideas laid out are supported by several expels and give insight how innovation penetrates the marketplace." Read more
"The Innovator's Dilemma is a fascinating and thought-provoking book that explores the reasons why established companies often fail when new..." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the book's content, with some considering it a classic while others note that it feels slightly outdated in its research.
"This book used to be required reading, but it is woefully outdated and has lost relevance...." Read more
"The best I've read and a great classic...." Read more
"...It a bit dated in the industry studies..." Read more
"Despite being slightly dated in research, the main thesis of the book and supporting arguments are really intriguing...." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2025Useful infromation for tech business.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2014Using data from various industries, this book discusses dilemma between sustaining and disruptive innovation.
Most technological companies drift up-market, improving technology for increasingly high-margin customers. This is sustaining innovation. It can be hard, but if you continue to serve the same market, return on investment is predictable. Sustaining innovation creates vacuum at the low end, and entrants fill it with new technologies, not as capable but better in other ways - simpler, more reliable, suitable in different environments, and typically cheaper up-front. This is disruptive innovation. When a working low-end business model is found, products start to improve until they meet demands of mainstream customers. At this point, being cheaper, or simpler, or more reliable, new technologies win.
The entrants often fail, but the wins can be huge. For sustaining innovation, being the first with new technology is not very important - you can serve the same market with incremental improvements to the previous technological generations for a while. For disruptive innovation, the first companies often take it all. They fly below the radar for a while, polishing the processes, and as soon as product is ready for mainstream, they can win overnight. So with more risk of failure, and more to gain, disruptive innovation might be attractive, statistically.
Sure smart management will invest in disruptive innovation, then? In fact, engineers at big companies often do have prototypes of disruptive technologies done before anybody else, it just must be marketed. But then, CEO has to decide between sure increase of bottom line next year using sustaining innovation, or betting on a project that might fail, and even if it succeeds, bringing very small revenue initially. Even if top management decides to bet, it is middle managers and sales people who determine resource allocation on a daily basis, and they also prefer sure bonus this year to uncertain huge win 5 years from now, so disruptive projects usually don't get much attention. Everybody waits until disruptive technology matures enough to serve existing markets, while new companies at eating into those existing markets. There were big companies that successfully brought disruptive products to market, but it requires constant attention of CEO for months. In a sense, the capabilities that allow big companies to operate in their current established markets are liabilities when trying to find new markets.
The solution suggested in the book is creating independent organizations. It can be a complete new company, or it can be a different office, but that organization must be "independent from normal resource allocation process" of mother company, and be judged on how well it can find and grow new market for the disruptive technology. It also suggests that all plans must be plans for discovery of market ("experts' forecasts will be wrong") and therefore be based about inexpensive experiments into new markets and provide for quick change of course if necessary.
The biggest concern about this book is that despite having charts everywhere, it is still more about intuitions rather than any mathematical models. It does mention that company profits can increase as competitions grab low-end market, and it does mention companies that continue to hold nice high-end market after middle-end is occupied by new technology, so decisions are not obvious. There is also a case study of one possible innovation, electric cars, but it only say that their performance is not suitable for mainstream on all metrics (it was before Tesla made it to 60 in 4 seconds) and is increasing faster than market demands. By that criteria, every company should invest in pretty much any new technology. I would have hoped for a more detailed analysis here, but it could be too much to ask from a book that was first to even bring up the innovators dilemma.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2017Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseThe 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.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2023Format: KindleVerified PurchaseOK, 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.
Top reviews from other countries
- ReviewRobertReviewed in the Netherlands on May 26, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseGreat book worth the read
- SecunReviewed in Spain on March 31, 2015
5.0 out of 5 stars A good add-on for those professional working in fast-paced environments
I felt surprised for the quality of the book in terms of:
- Many real-life examples from where conclusions are so easily derived (Honda motorcycles introduction in US is a very good one, also disk drive industry and others)
- Additional references for those who want to dig more into some specific areas
I like very much the overall message and how Clayton guides the reader into his simple logic: good management can lead to disaster (as proved by several real-life examples) so what we can do to harness the principles of disruptive innovation.
In other reviews you have additional information into the book and the content , but all in all, I'd say this is a must for any marketer, strategist of professional working in fast-paced and dynamics business with great potential for disruption.
- AnonymousReviewed in Canada on December 29, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the revolutionary business books of all time!
Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseClayton Christensen compiles a revolutionary business idea into practical steps that can help businesses stay relevant in times of change. He uses concrete evidence to support his views and provide an unbiased analysis to help readers understand the concepts. Worth the read for anyone trying to change the world!
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RomurReviewed in France on April 26, 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars Toujours aussi pertinent
Depuis bientôt 20 ans, ce livre est devenu un classique et ses idées se sont assez bien diffusées... mais pas partout ! On voit encore des entreprises qui sombrent face à l’émergence d’une concurrence nouvelle, d’une technologie de rupture.
Christensen expose, à travers une série d’exemples historiques issus de différents secteurs, les caractéristiques qui permettent de reconnaitre une véritable rupture et analyse l’impact qu’elles ont eu sur des leaders historiques. En seconde partie, il expose les stratégies que peut mettre une entreprise établie pour gérer ces ruptures et éviter de se faire emporter par l’émergence de concurrents inattendus.
Lisez-le ! Cette vision est plus que jamais d’actualité dans notre monde piloté par l’innovation, peut-être même dans VOTRE entreprise.
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Thales CarvalhoReviewed in Brazil on August 27, 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars Maravilhoso!
Embora o próprio autor reconheça que alguns conceitos trabalhados nesse livro foram mal trabalhados, e que ele trabalhou nessas falhas em suas obras posteriores, para mim o autor explicou perfeitamente como funciona a "destruição criadora" schumpeteriana. Ele parte do problema sobre o porquê das grandes empresas quebrarem, descarta a hipótese de incompetência dos gestores destas empresas e reconhece a existência de dois tipos de inovação: a sustentada, quando um produto busca apenas fazer mais e melhor, e a disruptiva, que o produto busca fazer "não exatamente" o que os líderes de mercado fazem. Ele analisa quando essas inovações disruptivas funcionam e quando não funcionam. Vou dar um exemplo: na última geração de consoles, a Sony buscou fazer um videogame (PS3) melhor que o anterior (PS2) e a Microsoft fez o mesmo (Xbox / Xbox360). Já a Nintendo fez o Wii, que não era voltado para o público-alvo tradicional. Resultado: o Wii explodiu em vendas. Enfim, se você ler este livro (erroneamente traduzido como O Dilema da "Inovação" para o português) e "A Estratégia do Oceano Azul" em sequência você entenderá bastante como as coisas funcionam...