Seeing What's Next

Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change

by Clayton M. Christensen , Scott D. Anthony , Erik A. Roth

Number of pages: 352

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press

BBB Library: Creativity and Innovation

ISBN: 978-1591391852



About the Authors

Clayton M. Christensen : is an American scholar, educator, author, business consultant, and religious leader,

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Scott D. Anthony : Scott D. Anthony is the Managing Partner of Innosight. Based in

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Erik A. Roth : Erik is a leader in Strategy Practice in the Americas and

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Editorial Review

Day in and day out, millions of us take action based on what we think the future will hold. Investors buy shares when they think a company's future is bright and sell shares when they think a company's future is dim. Analysts try to understand what the future holds so they can dispense insightful nuggets of wisdom to their clients. High-level executives try to separate signal from noise and threats from opportunities, and act accordingly. All of these people observe actions taken by managers and try to determine the impact those actions will have on the future. Typically, the biggest questions on their minds are: How will this innovation change an industry, and what impact does this have on the firms I care about?

Book Reviews

"What’s Next is written for those who watch industries from the [in italics] outside, and who must make important decisions based on what they see. It will help executives, analysts, investors, and others who have a stake in a specific industry to evaluate the impact of innovations, the outcomes of competitive battles, and the moves made by individual firms — and to make smarter business decisions, forecasts, and stock recommendations based on those evaluations. The goal here [in Seeing What’s Next] is to dramatically increase the odds of getting things right in the arena where wrong decisions could be devastating.”" - Bob Morris

"Seeing What's Next offers a practical, three-part model that helps decision-makers spot the signals of industry change, determine the outcome of competitive battles, and assess whether a firm's actions will ensure or threaten future success. Through in-depth case studies of industries from aviation to health care, the authors illustrate the predictive power of innovation theory in action." - Harvard Business Review Press

"The authors show how to understand what attackers can do to tilt the balance of power in their favor and what incumbents can do to withstand attacks" - Questia

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Wisdom to Share

Sustaining innovations are what moves companies along established improvement trajectories. They are improvements to existing products on dimensions historically valued by customers.

Disruptive innovations introduce a new value proposition. They either create new markets or reshape existing markets.

Companies can create new-market disruptive innovations to reach non-consumers.

Historically, people perceived the process of innovation to be random. This seemingly random process actually follows distinct patterns that lead to predictable outcomes.

When a low-cost competitor attacks a given tier of a market, it only enjoys a cost advantage as long as high-cost competitors remain in the market.

Firms eventually face competition. Predicting who will win these battles requires evaluating combatants' strengths and weaknesses.

When companies have the same capabilities and motivation, they care about the battle and have the necessary skills to fight it.

Asymmetries of motivation occur when one firm wants to do something that another firm specifically does not want to do.

Asymmetries allow disruptive attackers to enter a market, grow without incumbent interference, and mitigate the incumbent's response when it is finally motivated to counterattack.

Disruption is the fundamental mechanism that makes products and services inexpensive, convenient, and simple to use.

The future will always be unpredictable. The only thing we can truly predict with absolute certainty is that something we didn't predict will happen.

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