Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth

THE INNOVATOR’S
SOLUTION
THE SUMMARY IN BRIEF
Roughly one company in every ten is able to sustain the kind of growth
that translates into an above-average increase in shareholder returns over
more than a few years. Once a company’s core business has matured, the
pursuit of new platforms for growth entails daunting risk — to put it simply,
most companies just don’t know how to grow, and pursuing growth the
wrong way can be worse than no growth at all.
In The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen showed how companies
that focus on high-end products for profitable customers can be blindsided
by "disruptive” innovations from new competitors — innovations that
target low-end customers seeking cheaper products. In The Innovator’s
Solution, Christensen and co-author Michael Raynor show established
companies how to create disruptions rather than being destroyed by them
— how to turn innovative ideas into new disruptive products that will lead
to long-term profitable growth.
Concentrated Knowledge? for the Busy Executive ? www.summary.com Vol. 25, No. 11 (3 parts) Part 1, November 2003 ? Order # 25-26
CONTENTS
How Can We Beat
Our Most Powerful
Competitors?
Pages 2, 3
What Products Will
Customers Want
To Buy?
Pages 3, 4
Who Are the Best
Customers
For Our Products?
Pages 4, 5
Getting the Scope
Of Business Right
Pages 5, 6
Avoiding
Commoditization
Page 6
Is Your Organization
Capable of Disruptive
Growth?
Page 7
Disruptive Growth
Starts at the Top
Page 8
By Clayton M. Christensen and
Michael E. Raynor
FILE: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
?
What You’ll Learn In This Summary
? How you can beat your most powerful competitors. It all starts with disruption
— if you learn the elements of disruption and practice its theories, no
competitor will be able to touch you.
? What products your customers will want to buy. Learn how to accurately
segment your markets (hint — it’s not by demographics like age or gender),
help your disruptions grow into healthy businesses, and avoid the market
forces that can fool you into making bad decisions.
? Who the best customers are for your products. How do you extract
growth from an audience that doesn’t use your products at the moment? It’s a
secret that can put you over the top.
? Get the scope of your business right. Should you take care of key functions
in-house, or outsource them? Should you integrate your product offerings
or modularize? Find out which is right for your business.
? Develop disruptive growth from the top down. Powerful executive leadership
is essential in turning disruptive innovations into successful businesses.
What should your executive leadership do to get the ball rolling toward successful
disruptions? How can they help foster sustained business growth?