1997 book by Clayton M. Christensen
POPULARITY
Subscribe on Patreon and hear the full episode here: www.patreon.com/posts/50515988 (Teaser) Happy World Intellectual Property Day, everyone. We discuss the rapid rise of covid cases in India, some of the obscene ways it's been interpreted by American press, and the recent dramatic rise in calls for the WTO to waive pharmaceutical companies' patents for covid vaccines and therapeutics. 26 April 2021
Clayton Christensen demonstrates how successful, outstanding companies can do everything "right" and still lose their market leadership – or even fail – as new, unexpected competitors rise and take over the market. There are two key parts to this dilemma. Value to innovation is an S-curve: Improving a product takes time and many iterations. The first of these iterations provide minimal value to the customer but in time the base is created and the value increases exponentially. Once the base is created then each iteration is dramatically better than the last. At some point the most valuable improvements are complete and the value per iteration is minimal again. So in the middle is the most value, at the beginning and end the value is minimal. Incumbent sized deals: The incumbent has the luxury of a huge customer set but high expectations of yearly sales. New entry next generation products find niches away from the incumbent customer set to build the new product. The new entry companies do not require the yearly sales of the incumbent and thus have more time to focus and innovate on this smaller venture. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/pbliving/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pbliving/support
Nous explorons l'Innovator's Dilemma avec Simon Bonaventure Bonne écoute! Liens: https://www.christenseninstitute.org/disruptive-innovations/ https://www.amazon.ca/Antifragile-Bienfaits-Nassim-Nicholas-Taleb/dp/2251444769 À propos de Simon : https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-bonaventure/ Comme coachs agiles, nous sommes entourés de talents incroyables sur l’agilité et il est grand temps qu’on se dote d’un podcast et partager avec vous cette mine d’or de connaissances. Bonne écoute!
In 1997, Clayton Christensen's book, The Innovator's Dilemma, laid the groundwork for the study of disruption and innovation and paved the way for the most successful businesses of our time. In this episode of the Hanging Pixels Podcast, host TW Woodward applies the principles of disruption and innovation to his experience in the photo industry, then uses the same principles to predict the competitive forces that might be lurking right around the corner.
Clayton Christensen, academic and Author of "the Innovator's Dilemma" sadly, on January 23rd 2020. In today's episode we recognize his insights and legacy. Check out the Book Most Businesses Fail in the First 5 Minutes, It Just Takes them 3-5 Years to Realize it. Out on Amazon Kindle NOW. Or go to: PositiontoWinBook.com
Join Ed and Ron as they discuss the contributions of Clayton Christensen, one of our favorite business authors and thinkers. Among many other contributions, he was best known for his theory of "disruptive innovation", first introduced in his 1997 book The Innovator's Dilemma.
This week Mike engages with noted author, speaker, and futurist, Bryan Alexander to discuss the challenges and potential futures emerging for higher education focusing on the US. Bryan has recently authored a book called Academia Next in which he explores trends and describes multiple possible futures for the higher ed ecosystem. What are the threats that are emerging to the traditional model of higher education in the US? How do adjuncts fit into the picture? Is Clayton Christensen's concept of the Innovator's Dilemma relevant to the future of higher education or are there reasons why it doesn't apply? We explore all of these questions and get Bryan to describe several of his possible futures during a free-flowing and imaginative conversation about where the world of higher education is heading. And we also talk a bit about science fiction for good measure. In all, we got a lot out of the conversation and hope you find value in listening.
Disruption. Innovation. Opportunity. Clayton Christensen set a pretty high bar. Unfortunately he passed away last week. Christensen was known as the father of “disruptive innovation” and author of what The Economist calls one of the most important business books of all time, The Innovator’s Dilemma. To better understand the man and the impact he had, we interviewed two people whose lives were massively impacted by “Clay”: Carlos Castelan, The Navio Group and Chris Howard, Callahan & Associates. Geeks Geezers Googlization Radio Show is broadcast live at Wednesday's at 1PM ET on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). This podcast is also available on Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com).
Markus Raunig und Daniel Cronin diskutieren diese Woche:Das österreichische Startup Trilite als potenzieller Deep Tech Champion, Die E-Scooter Konsolidierung,Der neue Kultur Token der Stadt Wien,Deep Dive: The Most Evil Tech Companies,Rockstar der Woche: Clayton Christensen,Moonshot: Tech-Giganten mit sozialer Verantwortung,Prediction: Authentische Plattform aus Europa---Trilite Investment: https://t1p.de/rr7o Bird kauft Circ: https://t1p.de/j0fy BCG Studie zu E-Scootern: https://t1p.de/e19l Kultur Token: https://t1p.de/k40o The Most Evil Tech by Slate: https://t1p.de/kx8r Googles Umgang mit der Marktmacht: https://t1p.de/ub8a Facebook & der Genozid in Myanmar: https://t1p.de/32hc Jan Böhmermann erklärt Coin Master: https://t1p.de/9in7 Clayton Christensen's the Innovator's Dilemma: https://t1p.de/h4pa
I recorded this episode on the afternoon when I learned of the passing of one of the world's greatest minds, and someone I had the privilege of considering a friend and a mentor - Prof. Clay Christensen of the Harvard Business School.Prof. Christensen was best known for his theory of "disruptive innovation", first introduced in his 1997 book The Innovator's Dilemma, which has been called the most influential business idea of the early 21st century. He was the New York Times best-selling author of many more books, including "The Innovator's Solution" and "How Will You Measure Your Life" [Marina - include hyperlinks to Amazon's site for those books and the Innovator's Dilemma]. He had his own Institute of Innovation at Harvard. In this episode I share my his passing is so hard for me and three lessons I learned from this wonderful human being about Innovation, Disruption, Love and Humility.
Ooh, wee-do we have a great podcast today! Check it out as we break down why Wisdom wants us to embrace Chaos and all the gifts that come with it. Book mentioned: Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen: https://amzn.to/36827HX Don't forget to use our Amazon link to support the podcast by using our Amazon Shopping link! http://MichelleSpiva.com/Amz To send a message to the show: https://anchor.fm/michelle-spiva/message For Interviews, sponsorship, or coaching/consulting, please send inquires to: MichelleSpiva at gmail dot com (no solicitation-spam; *You do not have permission to add this email to any email list or autoresponder without knowledge or consent) _____________________________ Further support this podcast, please do so by using any of these methods: All your Amazon shopping: http://michellespiva.com/Amz Venmo: @MichelleSpiva1 CashApp: $MichelleSpiva PayPal: http://bit.ly/Donate2Michelle Patreon: https://Patreon.com/MichelleSpiva Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe, rate, and review. Follow Michelle here: Facebook: facebook.com/FollowMichelleSpiva Twitter: @mspiva IG: @MichelleSpiva Find out more about Michelle's alter-ego fiction writer side: Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/2lIP6Om Facebook: facebook.com/MychalDanielsAuthor Twitter: @mychaldaniels IG: @MychalDaniels Website: MychalDaniels.com/connect --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/michelle-spiva/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/michelle-spiva/support
Clay Christensen is a professor of business at Harvard Business School as well as a successful business entrepreneur. He has contributed to the world of business innovation since 1997 when he published The Innovator's Dilemma. In the book he explains why existing companies will never be able to disrupt themselves. Stephen also dives in deep and discusses the three types of innovation; sustaining, efficiency & disruptive. For more information check out our encyclopedia at http://intelligentcontent.marketing
“Humility leads to curiosity, curiosity leads to learning.” - Joe Kvedar, MD In this episode, we discussed the future of technology in healthcare, behavioral economics, navigating the status quo in medicine, finding solutions by looking to other industries, and much more. Dr. Joe Kvedar is a global leader and expert in the field of digital health and a board-certified dermatologist and professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School. After finishing his residency and fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, he was an early implementer of teledermatology, and he quickly became involved in the telehealth movement. In 1995, he helped created Partners Connected Health, and through his leadership as director and vice president, he has spent over two decades paving the way for leveraging personal health tech, managing chronic conditions, and improving patient engagement and clinical outcomes. He's authored over 100 publications and is on the Editorial Board of the Nature Journal Digital Medicine. He’s just been re-elected as the president of the American Telemedicine Association, is co-chair of the American Medical Association's Digital Medicine Payment Advisory Group, and a consultant and advisor for multiple societies and med tech companies. Dr. Kvedar has spoken at multiple TEDx events, and he’s author of the cHealth blog and host of the Well/Connected podcast. He’s also written two books: The Internet of Healthy Things, and most recently The New Mobile Age: How Technology Will Extend the Healthspan and Optimize the Lifespan.
Timothy J. Mohin is the Chief Executive of GRI, developer of the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting standards. A veteran in the field of corporate sustainability reporting, Tim is responsible for driving GRI's mission to empower decisions that create social, environmental and economic benefits for everyone. Prior to his appointment as Chief Executive, Tim was Senior Director of Corporate Responsibility for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). He is also a former Chairman of the Board for the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) and former member of the Conflict Free Sourcing Initiative’s steering committee. Previously, Tim founded and led Apple’s Supplier Responsibility program. He also led Intel’s environmental and sustainability functions. Tim started his career with the US government. With the Environmental Protection Agency, he led the development of the toxics provisions of the Clean Air Act Amendments. Later, Tim was senior legislative staff for the Chairman of Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Tim Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Testifying for mandated ESG reporting in the US Evolving GRI standards and framework to meet new demands Developing a new GRI standard to disclose corporate taxation Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Interview Highlights: Can you talk to us a little bit about the importance of ESG initiatives to a company's bottom line and how you think we can best communicate this to those that don't get it? Yeah, it's a great question. We are viewing this from a global perspective and there's many, many examples where undisclosed material risks have led to some pretty negative effects on companies. But the bigger picture that we're seeing is that ESG information, so-called sustainability information, has moved from a niche, let's face it, reputational issue into the very mainstream of global commerce where analysts, investors, asset owners are demanding this information and rely on this information to make decisions. So, GRI has responded to that by becoming the international standard setter, but we need to do more. We need to have better consistency, better compatibility and better quality. Let's face it, a lot of these reports are a hundred pages or more and they have a lot of pretty pictures and they're somewhat marketing oriented. The disclosures now need to be much more professional and that is the change that we're trying to push forward and that's the change that we're seeing in legislation, not just in the US but across the world. Investors are clearly picking up on this. They're understanding that these companies with demonstrated commitments to sustainability and transparency are outperforming others. Obviously we're seeing a huge rise in ESG and socially responsible investing. What has that recent interest and growth in ESG and socially responsible investing meant for GRI and the reporting world? Last year we had the CEO of the largest asset manager in the world, BlackRock, say that within the next five years, all investors will measure a company's impact on society, government and the environment to determine its worth. It's a pretty incredible statement that received a lot of attention in the investment community and the sustainability world. Well, it certainly brought us a lot of attention because as you know, most companies that are reporting are using GRI to report. Currently, we're looking at data that shows that of the top 250 companies by revenue, 93% are reporting sustainability information and 75% of those are using GRI. The numbers in the top 5,000 also show that 75% are reporting and 63% are using GRI. So, we are converging around a global standard and I think that's very important. It brings us a lot of attention and puts a lot of pressure on us as well. But I think one really important difference to point out as we mainstream from a niche reputational paradigm into one that's much more in the center of global commerce, is this area of materiality. Some actors in the field are really focused on financial materiality, but frankly, if the issues are financially material, they should be disclosed anyway in the regular financial disclosures. The fact is, when you come to ESG information, it's very difficult to make a financial materiality case for many of these issues and so you have to apply a different test. You have to look at not only what is the effect on the company in the near term, but what is the company's effect on the environment in the longterm. That's what the GRI materiality test brings to the table and I think it's very important that test be maintained as these mandates start to come online. On the topic of evolving the GRI standards, you're now addressing the issue of corporate taxation as a sustainability issue. GRI is now developing the first global standard for disclosures of the taxes companies pay in the various countries where they operate. Can you tell us a little bit about why GRI is going down this path and where you're at with that? It's really exciting because this is our first new standard in many years. We have 33 topic specific standards in the economic, environmental and social space. This one is obviously in the economic space. So, why would we prioritize this one? Well, it turns out that having appropriate payments to governments, tax payments to governments, is fundamental to government's ability to provide sustainability services to their people. If industry is not paying their fair share, if they're hiding their resources in tax havens for example, then the whole system starts to crumble. So, we have been told by many different stakeholders that this is a high priority issue and that there's millions, billions and trillions of dollars, euros and pounds that have been hidden from taxes, and it's time to expose that. Specifically embedded in the standard is country by country reporting, which is absolutely central. Most industries would argue we already have to report this, which is true within a certain country, but multinationals don't have to report across their business globally. So, that's the innovation here. We got 85 different submissions when it went to public comment and they were all positive. 43% of them were from investors. So, even investors who you might imagine going the other way are very much supportive of new standard. What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I actually wrote an entire book about this. It's called Changing Business from the Inside Out. So, of the 270 plus pages, what I would pick out as this: lead from wherever you stand. A lot of people in many organizations can feel that they don't have a lot of decision making power, but they have a lot of passion for the topic. What I talk about in the book is there are many ways to express that passion to help move your organization in a sustainable direction. You don't have to be in the sustainability department to express those views in your professional life. So, lead from wherever your standing. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? You know, it's that mainstreaming movement that we talked about earlier. When I started this, I mentioned sustainability hadn't been invented, and then when it became invented it was kind of a niche play of, let's say, altruistic people. And now it's really personally and professionally satisfying to see something that I've dedicated my career to become mainstream. Now it's being talked about by global commerce actors, by the chair of the Bank of England, by Larry Fink and by others in the business world. I find that to be incredibly satisfying and hugely important to our future. What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read? Well, my book of course, Changing Business from the Inside Out. But also, there is a book that I really thought was inspirational. It's called How Will You Measure Your Life, by Clayton Christianson. Clayton Christiansen is the author of The Innovator's Dilemma which is a classic in the business book genre, but he also has lived his life in a way to bring a lot of extra value to the world that is not all about just making money. He wrote it all down in a book called, How Will You Measure Your Life. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? There's many I can choose from, but for me the GRI standards are incredibly helpful. Why are they helpful? Because everybody likes to talk about sustainability, but very few people can define with specificity what it means. I'm not just making this up, I say this in my book, if you really want to know what sustainability means start with the GRI standards, because it will lead you through how to conduct a materiality assessment and then each and every specific topic that's under that broad rubric of sustainability is defined. Where can people go to learn more about you and the work that you're leading at GRI? So I do have a website, timmohin.com. That carries all of my latest social media postings as well as my articles and press reports. That would probably be the best way to follow me, personally. Of course, there's the GRI website and the GRI newsletter, which are also really good resources for your listeners. About Sustridge Sustridge is a sustainability consulting firm providing consulting in sustainability strategy development, GHG emissions calculating and management, zero waste planning and guidance in TRUE Zero Waste, B Corp, LEED and Carbon Neutral certification.
This week on the podcast I’ll do another of my monthly book reviews! This month I’m talking about Clayton Christensen’s book, The Innovator’s Dilemma. This is one of the seminal business and leadership books, it is a MUST on your bookshelf. Not only is it valuable to read but, it also contains valuable action points to apply in your own business and even your life.
Clayton Christensen’s great book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, describes disruptors and the challenges incumbent companies face in keeping up with the new entrant’s rate of improvement. Even great companies struggle because they are good at the wrong things. Many don’t survive. The healthcare industry is in the midst of massive change, fueled by new innovation, changing regulations, and millions of aging baby boomers. Successful consumer-centric companies such as Amazon, Uber, Apple and CVS have entered the market with proven customer engagement strategies powered by advanced mobile technology. In this episode, Greg Johnsen and Greg Kefer discuss the challenges healthcare companies face today and how their innovation mindset must evolve to engage on consumer terms, not the providers’ terms. Today’s patients are consumers and they’re using advanced mobile technology to manage things like travel, transportation, and shopping and that influences their healthcare experience perception. If the industry is serious about engaging patients, it must evolve.
Clayton Christensen’s great book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, describes disruptors and the challenges incumbent companies face in keeping up with the new entrant’s rate of improvement. Even great companies struggle because they are good at the wrong things. Many don’t survive. The healthcare industry is in the midst of massive change, fueled by new innovation, changing regulations, and millions of aging baby boomers. Successful consumer-centric companies such as Amazon, Uber, Apple and CVS have entered the market with proven customer engagement strategies powered by advanced mobile technology. In this episode, Greg Johnsen and Greg Kefer discuss the challenges healthcare companies face today and how their innovation mindset must evolve to engage on consumer terms, not the providers’ terms. Today’s patients are consumers and they’re using advanced mobile technology to manage things like travel, transportation, and shopping and that influences their healthcare experience perception. If the industry is serious about engaging patients, it must evolve.
Art Papas, CEO of Bullhorn, discusses the business of temporary staffing, the danger of doing a marketing push before finding product market fit, focusing early on culture, adjusting to his role as CEO, communication techniques for company-wide messaging, and having enthusiasm for the future. Bullhorn Winning- Jack Welch The Innovator's Dilemma- Clayton Christensen Art on Twitter See open positions at thoughtbot! Become a Sponsor of Giant Robots!
March 7, 2019 Fat Bike Birkie Special Show Page ABOUT THE EPISODE This is a special one for Mountain Bike Radio. Six guests sitting around the table in the cabin discussing the area, the people, bikes, events, and plenty more. Thanks to MTB Ben of New England Dirt, Christina & Peter Spencer (Lutsen 99er & Chequamegon MTB Festival), Joe (GoodHeart Solutions) & Liz Vadeboncouer for taking the time to share their perspective. ---------- RELATED SHOW LINKS Fat Bike Birkie - https://www.birkie.com/bike/events/fat-bike-birkie/ GoodHeart Solutions - https://goodheartsolutions.com/ The Cable Cabin - http://thecablecabin.com Chequamegon MTB Festival - http://www.cheqfattire.com/ Lutsen 99er - https://www.lutsen99er.com/ Chequamegon Area Mountain Bike Association (CAMBA) - https://www.cambatrails.org/ CAMBA Fat Bike Afterparty - https://www.facebook.com/events/2187000951346820/ CAMBA Fat - https://www.facebook.com/cambafatbike/ Trek Bikes - https://www.trekbikes.com The Innovator's Dilemma - https://amzn.to/2UgREoP Borah Epic - https://www.borahepic.com/ Terrene Tires Johnny 5 - https://terrenetires.com/pages/johnny5 Hayward Chamber of Commerce - https://haywardareachamber.com/ Cable Chamber of Commerce - http://www.cable4fun.com/ Velo Cafe - https://www.facebook.com/velocafeWI/ The Rivers Eatery - https://theidealmarket.com/ South Shore Brewery - https://www.southshorebrewery.com/ Sawmill Saloon - https://www.seeleywis.com/ Angler's Bar & Grill - https://www.anglersbarandgrill.com/ Main Street Tacos - http://mainstreettacos.com/ New Moon Ski & Bike - https://www.newmoonski.com/ Riverbrook Bike & Ski - https://www.riverbrookbike.com/ ----------- ABOUT THE FAT BIKE BIRKIE SPECIAL The Fat Bike Birkie is the largest fatbike race in the world. Over the next week, Ben Welnak and Ben Hall (“MTB Ben from New England Dirt) will be bringing you an audio experience of the weekend. This will include discussions with several different people – directors, racers, sponsors, volunteers, and anyone else willing to chat! Follow along below! (Or you can listen other ways too – GO HERE)
Excerpts from Clay Christensen's address to his students at Harvard Business School, titled "How will you measure your life?". Clayton Christensen is best known as the author of "The Innovator's Dilemma" and his theory of "Disruptive Innovation".Follow the show on Twitter @LED_Curator Website www.learneducatediscover.com/ Like us on FaceBook at www.facebook.com/learneducatediscover/ Email us at hello@learneducatediscover. We will reply!! Subscribe to the show on iTunes itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/learn…ver/id1049159321
Lost in the Stacks: the Research Library Rock'n'Roll Radio Show
Guest: Mike Filler of Georgia Tech. First broadcast January 25 2019. Playlist at https://www.wrek.org/2019/01/playlist-for-lost-in-the-stacks-from-friday-january-25th-the-library-innovators-dilemma-episode-410/ "Since we've got you, we're going to talk about a 20-year-old business book."
Peter Krogh is a photographer and author the DAM book, Digital Asset Management aka the bible on digital photography. His currently the Acting Director of Digital Strategy at History Factory where he integrates storytelling, web-based media publishing and digital preservation into a seamless user experience. I am really looking forward to hearing more about how he uses technology to tell stories and preserve the past. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Norma Nieto was the President of PIVOT, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Impellia through mid-2017, and is currently working in multiple capacities for Impellia as a consultant. She currently has her own strategy and analytics consulting company, N-Squared Strategic Consulting, which helps clients harness the power of data and analytics to develop innovative strategies. Impellia is a sports software and sensor-based technology company co-founded by former Pittsburgh Steelers QB Charlie Batch. We discuss transitioning from a large corporation to a scrappy startup. Never miss one of our best episodes by subscribing to the newsletter. Norma’s Challenge; Don’t be afraid of a startup. Change can bring someone great out of you. Book Recommendation Lead and Disrupt: How to Solve the Innovator's Dilemma by Charles A. O'Reilly III & Michael Tushman Connect with Norma LinkedIn Twitter Website norma.b.nieto@gmail.com If you liked this interview, check out episode 338 with Courtney Williamson where we discuss developing a prototype for a new invention, scaling a medical device company, and getting approved by regulators. Underwritten by Piper Creative A digital agency that provides strategy, delivery, and analysis specializing in a few key service offerings. Documentary-as-a-Service (Vlogging 2.0) Instagram Content Production & Account Building Podcast Production, Strategy Consulting, and Guest Acquisition If you aren’t creating or curating content regularly, your clients and customers might forget you’re open for business. YouTube Instagram Subscribe on iTunes | Stitcher | Overcast | PodBay
We visit another titan of innovation on this show - Clay Christiansen. He has written many books on and around the topic of innovation and is a Harvard Business School Professor. His most significant contribution is his theory of "disruptive innovation" - considered the most influential business idea of the early 21st century.
Everyone's been talking about tech disruption for twenty-some years now since The Innovator's Dilemma came out. However, there's another order of disruption happening and that is the customer experience disruption. We're moving to this place where people don't just want to have experiences of feel good, they want to be transformed. They want to become […]
The Only Success that Matters: This week, Paul Ford and Rich Ziade discuss the figurative moats that protect companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google from competition. Has anybody really figured out how to disrupt their markets? Why isn’t Postlight jumping on machine learning and blockchain? This episode is about companies zeroing in on their own strengths and focusing on their right-sized ideas. Paul — 3:10:“How do you function and thrive in a world where you know you’re never going to be the biggest? Where there are giant organizations with giant competitive moats around them and yet the whole narrative is like, ‘this is the only success that matters.’” Paul — 6:10:“Starbucks at one point was making little coffee shops that were not Starbucks but were really cool and looked local. They wanted to just make sure they had a place to test out ideas and they wanted to make sure they were getting that market.” Paul — 7:40:“It’s so hard for the legacy company to catch up.” Rich — 8:10:“I think the way you disrupt is you eliminate steps. There was a day when you’d have to sign on to the internet with some internet provider. There was a day when you weren’t on the internet and when you wanted to get on the internet you dialed a number… Then you’d open your browser, and you’d go to Google.com, then you go into the search box and search. Google decided to come out with a browser. I couldn’t get it. Firefox was killer. It was excellent at that point in time… It turns out the only reason they were doing it was to eliminate one of the steps. The search bar and the URL bar became one.” Paul — 11:40:“Organisms at this size are vulnerable in a very sort of macro way. They’re vulnerable to economic shifts, technological disruptions, and cultural shifts. They’re not vulnerable to somebody else [doing] something 4% better, because then they’ll just buy them. Maybe global warming will destroy Google.” Rich — 16:30:“It’s funny, right? These monsters are competing with each other. They’re paranoid about each other. We started this with the moat. I mean there’s the moat between Starbucks and Pete’s Coffee — those are little moats compared to what’s going on [between Amazon and Google], so how the hell do you get in?” Paul — 17:30:“What we did is we made a decision to just focus on being a good company that puts nice things in your hand, and build solid platforms.” Paul — 19:16:“The giant tech companies, because they have such loud voices in the room, they get the press, they get to define the web and they define mobile… They eat up all that oxygen and they define success entirely for the vast majority of human beings.” Rich — 25:15:“That’s the tone of this. Just keep your chin up. Don’t ask if [you’re] going to be the next Facebook. Who wants to be Facebook?” Paul — 25:30:“When you are in this world and you listen and you pay attention to the media, you feel like an idiot if you don’t have a trillion-dollar opportunity.” LINKS Lily Tomlin — This is a Recording Slack Tensor Processing Unit TensorFlow Google Brain Stealth Starbucks Track Changes is the weekly technology and culture podcast from Postlight, hosted by Paul Ford and Rich Ziade. Production, show notes and transcripts by EDITAUDIO. Podcast logo and design by Will Denton of Postlight.
Author Campbell Macpherson joins us to talk about his new book The Change Catalyst and what it takes for organisations to create true change initiatives. The Change Catalyst provides you with the insight, tools and know–how you need to make sure your next change, strategy or M&A is the one in eight that succeeds. Find out more: [Book](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Change-Catalyst-Successful-Sustainable-Business/dp/1119386268) [Website](http://www.changeandstrategy.com/) Twitter @CampbellTCC [Linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/campbell-macpherson/) [Good Strategy Bad Strategy](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Good-Strategy-Bad-Difference-Matters/dp/1846684811) [The Innovator's Dilemma](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Innovators-Dilemma-Technologies-Management-Innovation/dp/142219602X)
Justo Hidalgo co-founded 24symbols 8 years ago, and this 'Spotify for Books' contender is still around and successful. In this week's podcast, we talk about how books really can compete against Angry Birds, the importance of continuing to provide ways for people to easily find and read books, and of balancing your work and home life. In the episode, Justo mentions several great business books in passing so I thought I'd list them here for you. Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown (Amazon / Kobo); Scaling Lean by Ash Maurya (Amazon / Kobo); The Founder's Dilemmas by Noam Wasserman (Amazon / Kobo); Venture Deals by Brad Feld (Amazon / Kobo); New Venture Creation by Geoffrey Timmons (apparently out of print but available from Amazon). Transcript (This is a bit of an experiment - let me know if you like transcripts!) John: [00:00:35] Welcome back to Talking Through My Hat. Today I'm talking with Justo Hidalgo, CEO and co-founder of 24symbols, the subscription service for ebooks. He's also an author, a university professor teaching product strategy and innovation. And I just discovered he's also a radio host. So thanks for talking to me today Justo. Justo: [00:00:53] Yeah. It's a pleasure to be here. John: [00:00:56] Yeah, so 24symbols has been around for over eight years now, which is quite an achievement. How've you distinguished yourself from all the other e-book subscription services that have come and gone in that time? What's kind of unique 24symbols thing? Justo: [00:01:10] Well if I really knew [laughs] I would probably sell the idea. Oh yeah the idea's still the same. You know, it's a subscription service for ebooks as you said and other kinds of cultural and entertainment assets like comic books and audiobooks. I believe that the reason we are still here is that since the start, it was very clear for us that these was a long race. That it was gonna take time and that we needed partners to work with us so very very very early in the state as soon as we could we started talking to partners especially in the customer acquisition stage. You continue having the amount of people that wanted to read and that we were unable to reach just because of our size. John: [00:01:53] Okay. So which sort of partners were you kind of linking up with there? Justo: [00:01:57] Oh but mainly right now is mobile carriers. We started having relationships with them in 2013 I think. These are typically launch and relationships both in terms of getting their relationship to work - you know very well how it is to work with big companies! John: [00:02:11] Yeah. Justo: [00:02:12] Yeah. And then of course they need some time to work. So right now we're for example in Latin America in a few countries, also in Germany, and we are also working with having some others. In some of the cases, some regions didn't work. We tried and it didn't work. In other cases, well the unit economics didn't work. You know in some countries for example, where the price of ebooks is too high but they are very used to very low-cost services. Well that's fine - we'd love to work there but that's very difficult. And also we're also started to diversify, to try to find other areas where books are necessary - for example transportation companies, hospitality companies, you know. Anywhere where someone can spend some time reading, we are trying to be there. John: [00:03:00] OK. Yeah. It's the hard thing about business, it's not building a product. It's finding someone to use it. And I think this strategy of working with people who have lots of customers who they need to find interesting things for, like mobile phone companies and as you say trains and hotels and stuff. I think that's a really interesting way of doing that. Justo: [00:03:20] Yes I mean, what we do is very straightforward. I mean we want, as someone from my team always says, we want to feed people books. You know, people want to eat this that we offer. But the difficulty is that being a generic service, a horizontal service, you need to provide a very good value proposition. We have 24symbols the B2C service that allows you to do whatever you want. But then of course you have to look for other ways to reach the people that may not know that they want to read. And this sounds like a very, you know, commercial or product-ish but it's the truth you know what we found it with more carriers, we're finding it in other verticals that people, you know they find out that you know, instead of playing Angry Birds, they can read some books sometimes. John: [00:04:07] Yeah well that's the thing, isn't it, that we say, you know, that books are now in competition with all forms of entertainment but they always were. And, you know, there's something there that people have always liked, so it's gonna be really great. So it's fantastic to find that you're finding this place for yourselves, this way of reaching customers and stuff through these partnerships. Why did you first create 24symbols? What was the big idea where you thought, I'm going to do this mad insane thing and an e-book business. Justo: [00:04:34] Well I think there are many many reasons. First, personally, I always wanted to build a company, so I come from a family where my parents always ran small businesses, and I kind of grew up seeing their difficulties, the challenges, the hard work. John: [00:04:50] A realistic view of what it might be like. Justo: [00:04:52] Yeah yeah. But at the same time, how my parents built something from scratch providing value to the community. You know they started with a drugstore and they started building driving schools - one and two and then three, before they retired. So, for me, it's part of my memories where I had to take chairs from my house to the driving school because suddenly there are lots of people in their theory classes. And then the opposite when there's some competition coming up and there are some struggles there in the family, but I always kind of looked at my parents to see how hard they work and is like: this is cool. But then I start, you know, I did my Computer Science degree, I started working for companies - always small companies but always like with a salary - and I always had, like, yeah this is good but, you know, I want to try to replicate what my parents did in a new way you know, of course, because I had other abilities, you know, my parents... John: [00:05:50] You've got to work on your own skill set than. Justo: [00:05:52] Exactly. My parents were great salesmen and I'm different but I know Computer Science. So that's kind of my first reason. Then, more specifically, 24symbols - technology. In other companies I worked for technology was basically an end, you know, so I spent many years working in a tech company doing data integration stuff, which has been really valuable for me afterwards in 24symbols. And I really enjoyed it. I got my PhD there. All that stuff. But I had the need to build something that people could use as a final result. Basically, what we were building there was a tool to build solutions. And I wanted to be that solution. And then I would say that the third reason is that thinking about that and related to what I have said this act of of the "Spotify for books" at that time. Everything I really wanted, it merged technology of course because at that time creating a cloud reader subscription service with all the cloud DRM was technologically quite challenging. At at the same time it was books, it was basically giving people books to read, which is something I've enjoyed all of my life. So, you know, these three things plus working with my colleagues at that time, my partners that I had worked with them in the past. You know, one of them was a previous student of mine. With another, we had been like 15 years working together - made a lot of sense. So he was kind of the final push as to say: This makes sense. Then of course from a business perspective it looked like people were talking (and you know that because you were at that time very deep) talking about you know subscription services in publishing. There were many doubts but there was also many good opportunities and we decided to give it a go. John: [00:07:37] So how did you form that initial kind of team, the co-founding team, the people who have, hopefully, the same kind of vision, of passion, that you did? How did you build that group? Justo: [00:07:48] Yeah I think that, typically, most of the decisions we make here while creating a company, and you know that very well, John, is pure serendipity or random. But some of the decisions you make are quite thought out. And in this case I think we kind of gave it a good thought. It was basically the four of us initial partners who came from the same company, that B2B tech company I mentioned. So we typically had, you know, coffee or had lunch together and talked about books. Most of the times were business books, but some of the time it was narrative, and we kind of shared this love for books. So at the beginning we would think, you know, of moonlighting projects of bringing American books, business books, to Spain and getting the rights and translating them and, you know, basically becoming a publisher. John: [00:08:38] Yeah. Justo: [00:08:39] I think it is good for the publishing company that we didn't do it! [Laughs] We would have been a horrible publisher, I believe. But that kind of started to say, maybe we should do something about this. And this idea came in early 2010 about the "Spotify for books". And then I remember very well the presentation of Steve Jobs with the first iPad. And that was the moment where it was like, Wow, this is the future. I mean that was our bet. And then it's when we start thinking, OK, with us four, does that make sense? It kind of makes sense - I mean, we have sales people, all of us were technical people. But you know, one of us very high experience in sales and marketing, the CTO had very deep down experience with with this technology, had experience with product and also had lived in the United States for a while doing product management and sales and marketing, so that we kind of had most of what we needed. And of course we missed the publishing side. So that's why one of our first - we tried to, and we found our one of our first investors to be part of the industry in Spain. John: [00:09:53] So, your co-founding group, as you say, you're all technical people so you're presumably all together writing the product, but then sharing out all those other roles as needed, kind of thing. Justo: [00:10:04] Yeah. So, building the product, like coding, it was our CTO Angel. Then I worked in the product and, you know, the data architecture. And then one or the other worked on the product management and product design but the four of us were able to give insight. It's about, you know, we could have very detailed discussions about, I don't know, I remember one discussion about the cache, you know - the book cache - how the information was going to be kept secure or whatever. And so we were able to - but then each of us had very specific roles, which changed completely as, for example, I was going to be focusing a lot on product but, you know, since we launched at the London Book Fair in 2011, it was clear that because of my English, because of all the things I could do that my other partners couldn't do, I was going to be more like PR. John: [00:11:02] Yeah - the public face for the English-speaking world. Justo: [00:11:04] Exactly. And that's that's very funny because out in Spain, it was very clear that one of my partners was the CEO at the time. Everyone knew my partner but nobody knew me. But, you know, outside in the English-speaking world, it was the total opposite. It was like, So you're not the CEO? No, but that doesn't matter! You know, so, and he also talks to me! John: [00:11:27] So you kind of mentioned that you started off with you that little group of you, you were a kind of a book group effectively, and one of the things you did was talk about business books. Is that how you've gone about learning to run a business yourself? Do you go to books, is it kind of web sites and stuff these days? Anything particular that you found useful? Or are you more of a, kind of, throw it up in the air, try it and see what happens? Justo: [00:11:48] You learn from everywhere you can. I mean, I have a very small anecdote about that, you know, then we can talk about books. So, we got accepted by Seedcamp, which is a London-based accelerator that was here in 2012. So one of the incredible things about Seedcamp is that, I think it was a Monday, I said something to them. I said, you know, since we're Spotify for books, I would like to meet someone from Spotify. You know, it would be great. John: [00:12:16] Yeah. Justo: [00:12:17] So, two days, they got me a VP, a vice president of Spotify, talking to him, and the meeting was five minutes - five minutes. It was, like, you know, we're 24symbols blah blah blah blah blah. "Oh yeah?" So he just put the hand on my shoulder and said, "Quit." [Laughing] Sorry, maybe my English is, I speak too fast. Let me explain that again. 24symbols... "Yeah yeah, you're like Spotify but for ebooks. Quit." So this is something like, OK. "So you want to be like Spotify for books, right. What's your background - technical this and that? Yeah OK. So it's great but only take into account one thing: if you are successful, you are not going to be a tech company, you are not going to be a content company, you're going to be a law firm." So, basically Spotify is the best law firm in London, in Europe. OK. So that's going to be your role. You're having a huge understanding of the law. Huge understanding of the relationship with publishers. Yeah that's going to be 24symbols so, you want to go for it, that's it. And for me those five minutes were huge in understanding where I was getting into. We're not a law firm at all but it's true that that, for many years, that's basically what I've done. I've basically learned to negotiate contracts with publishers before we tell other people. So these things are what I learn from. But also of course, you know, I'm more like a product guy so books like the classic "Crossing the chasm" or "The Innovator's Dilemma" or "Made to Stick". But there are also some very recent ones that are really good like Sean Ellis's "Hacking Growth" or Ash Maury's "Scaling Lean", which I don't know how it's going in sales but I think it's much better than his previous one, "Running Lean". And then from a business perspective there's a really good one called "The Founders' Dilemmas" from Noam Wasserman is really good for founders. I'd really recommend it. John: [00:14:20] Yeah, I found that really helpful at the beginning, just to get your head around some of the things that are coming your way. Justo: [00:14:24] Exactly and what it means to be together in a company with your partners. And of course for example Brad Feld's "Venture Deals" is absolutely key in terms of negotiating deals with VCs or business angels. And maybe a lesser known one is called "New Venture Creation" by Geoffrey Timmons. It's from a course at Stanford University - it's a huge book, it's really huge, it's a thousand pages, but full of good information for someone who started a business. So basically, my part of the business plan was written with this book open. Because there are so many good information. John: [00:15:03] So as we think about business and product and stuff, and when you think about it, you look back on eight years and the ways you've grown and changed and stuff. When you think about the next eight years, or eighty years or whatever it is, how do you think about that and where you want to be? And if so, how do you plot that kind of work? John: [00:15:26] Yes, That's a very difficult question! Well, I have no idea! [Laughs] Most of the time, we're trying to continue, I wouldn't say survive exactly but to continue - to thrive and to continue giving them the best product. But it is true that when you see where the industry is going and where the entertainment is going and even what the data for me is. And you know, because of my background, I think a lot about, you know, how this is going to evolve in terms of what kind of entertainment is going to be created. I believe that a service like 24symbols makes sense in the following, you know, five to eight years or whatever. I think a subscription service - the area of consumption instead of ownership - is there. People are consuming more Netflix, more HBO, more Spotify, more Amazon Prime. So we're looking to use that as part of our life. I think in terms of ownership, we're always going to own things and it's because it's an integral part of who we are as a species. So everyone, you know, all of us are still going to have books - I still have a full room of books - but they're going to be the books that are important to us. And it's going to be the same with everything. John: [00:16:40] I think this is interesting. We often hear "book people" talk about how it's really important that people buy books and own books and stuff, and this terrible, terrible modern thing of subscription is awful. When I was growing up, most of the books I read, I got from the library. They weren't my books. I took them for a week, I read them, and I gave them back. If I wanted to read it again I had to go back, find the book and bring it in. And OK, yes, then you'd find your favourite books or favourite authors and then you would buy those and want to own them for the long term. And I think we get a little bit too obsessed with ownership, you know. Borrowing, subscription stuff, is actually, has always been a really good low-barrier way to discover stuff. Justo: [00:17:21] Absolutely. You know, of course I have to agree! John: [00:17:26] Yeah you would, of course. Justo: [00:17:27] But I don't think this is a fight between, you know, print books or having books. There are some books that we're going to want to have because it's part of our life. And actually we might actually buy a better edition because we want to have it there, but because he has a story. And there's some others like, you know, I read it, that's fine. I have some notes, that's fine. You know, 24 symbols or whoever, you keep that. Just in case. But that's that's how I say to think of a more ahead is, you know. How people or why people read I think is the question to try to solve. John: [00:18:00] Yeah I think that's going to be a fascinating one. So when you look at the business, when you look at 24symbols, what is it that you find hardest about being a CEO, about running the business being a founder whatever? You know, some things obviously come naturally and, for you I guess from the sound of it, product is your focus and that's what you like. But what are the things you kind of shy away from but still have to do? Justo: [00:18:22] But still have to do, yes. This is totally personal, I mean, as Justo. I don't like to negotiate. And I know that's that's a horrible thing to say as a CEO. But you know I decided many years ago that I was going to be honest on this. I have to do it and of course, if you have to be hard on a negotiation, you have to be hard. But, man, it's just some people that enjoy negotiating, you know, it's like, No no, we have to negotiate. It's like, no, you know, let's get a deal fast, that's it, you know. And that I have my own issues with that. Then of course you have to learn and I've been successful in some negotiations. But wow, for me that's the hard thing. John: [00:19:10] That's really interesting. When we were talking earlier, actually before we started the show itself, of this thing of running a business and being a parent. I mean I'm in the same kind of shoes as you with kids and I love that you were sharing a quick story about looking after your daughter while you were having to do a presentation. Justo: [00:19:31] Oh yeah. Yes. Yes. The thing is that my wife and I, we both have companies so we both are entrepreneurs. She's more in the health side and I'm more in the book side. We have a daughter, an almost 4 year old daughter, and we have to kind of keep a balance of how we take care of that. Because for us taking care of Olivia is a priority. So it has good things, you know. I can take her to school every single morning, no problem. But there's moments where, you know, it's impossible to manage and so this year, this academic year, there's been two occasions where I had to give a talk to, in both cases, like 150-200 people. And I couldn't find someone to take care of Olivia. So I said that to the organisers and in both cases they said, Just come with her. Like, are you sure? It's like, well let's try it. So you know there were some people taking care of her, playing with her while I was giving my talk. But in both of them she just wanted to be with me, so she would be up with me in the final minutes or whatever. But in the first one, she came to me while I was giving the talk - actually the talk was in English so kind of my brain was totally busy with, you know, in general translating everything I want to say. And she just came to me and said, Daddy! Yeah you want you come here? Yes, but I want to go pee. Just like that. Well, can you what with this other person? No no no no, I want to go with you. So I had to ask the audience can you wait for five minutes? [Laughter] And the audience started to clap and, you know, we go. But I was totally embarrassed because for me, you know, this is serious. There's like, I'm giving a talk. John: [00:21:21] Two halves of your life blending. Justo: [00:21:23] Yeah. But the audience saw it as, you know, this is life. This is life as well and people are starting to understand that this happens. And I wouldn't rush with her. You know, she did what she had to do and then we came back, and people were clapping again and I finished and everything went well. They invited me to give a talk again. John: [00:21:39] So that went very well then. Justo: [00:21:41] That went well. But, yes, this is what you have to do when you have a startup and you want you to continue engaging and commiting to your family. John: [00:21:51] So as you look back over the last 8 years or so of running this business, creating it, building it - what have you learned about yourself from doing that? You know, do you still think of yourself as the same person or have you learned more about who you are or have you changed? Justo: [00:22:08] Yes I think everyone in 8 years changes a lot, you know, regardless of what you do. But it's true that running your business means having to make a lot of decisions, having to do things that you didn't expect that you would do and even enjoying it throughout the process. As I said, I never thought that I could negotiate the things I've been able to negotiate. I came from a career, a professional career, that was basically meant to be an expert in a very specific area. I did my PhD in data integration so I was meant to be that. John: [00:22:44] More specialist kind of thing. Justo: [00:22:47] Very specialist. And so even when I decided to be part of this, even my previous boss, who is someone I truly respect for everything he's done, was like: are you sure? You could be a big-data expert and things like that. You know what it's like. I don't know if I would be able to do that, but I want to try this. And it taught me a lot about, you know, having to manage many things at the same time and all that stuff. And then one thing I learned is, for us as for any company, we've had our ups and downs. And I remember, in 2012 we had a very very strong down and I never thought I would be able to have this, well now this word is resilience, right? It's to continue. We were like 15 months without having payments at all, you have no salary. And we are not rich. We don't come from rich families. So we had to do many different things because we believed and that, and for 15 months it was like I don't know how I'm going to do it. Of course sometimes you think, I'm what, 38 at that time or 36, 37. And I looked at my account and it was like, What am I doing? You know this doesn't make any sense. But you know I like this. I think this makes sense to me and you continue doing it. John: [00:24:06] So what is it that then brings you back every day in the face of those difficulties? It gets very real sometimes doesn't it? Justo: [00:24:14] Yes. John: [00:24:15] What brings you back? Justo: [00:24:18] I think in this case, at least for 24symbols, it's this vision. As I said before, I wanted to build something that could be used by people. And I know this sounds very typical but in my case at least this is true is of course we have our bugs, we have our complaints, but also we have lots of people saying, hey I'm enjoying! I read everyday with you, you know, with your books and this is just amazing. This is just amazing that you are building up a service where hundreds of thousands of people are being able to read and that's what in 2012 and other years it's like, OK one more. There's a challenge there. I remember I had a chance to talk to Ash Maurya the author of "Running Lean" and "Scaling Lean". And we were talking and he kind of agreed with me at that time that we still need to learn more about entrepreneurship like in judo or martial arts. You know, when you do martial arts, this is something you are taught: when you quit. You know, these guys are beating me. Okay so let's quit. You know, that's it. In entrepreneurship, you don't know that, you have no idea. There is no one who can tell you and in our case in 2010 and all the years, we were lucky but we could have not been lucky and we would have been in trouble. So that's I think in terms of knowing or learning more about what it means to build a company or a startup. We still need to learn more about, you know, when to quit, when it's the right moment to say that's it. John: [00:25:51] We gave it our best shot. John: [00:25:52] That's it, you know, next. John: [00:25:56] Well that seems a very topical note on which to say thanks very much Justo for that fascinating conversation and it's been great to hear from you again. Justo: [00:26:03] It's great you always talk to you John. Thanks so much. John: [00:26:07] Thanks to Justo for that fantastic interview. I'm always energized when I talk to him because he's got this real passion for just making books available to people. And it's really great, it's been great over years now to follow 24symbols in the way that they have persisted and survived. There are so many companies that have been touted as the "Spotify for books" and they're still here, they're still doing really well and just getting books in front of people. And the fact that, you know, this consumption model of streaming books, of borrowing books, of just having books for a while is nothing new. You know, as I said in the interview, you know, we've borrowed books from libraries for hundreds of years, decades. And this is just the new iteration of that model. So it is great to see people pushing that forward and developing it. So thanks very much to Justo. Next week we're going to be talking to Emma Donnan who is a ghostwriter. If you've ever wondered what ghostwriters do, how they go about things, how they fit into the world of publishing, tune in next week and hear what Emma has to say. Until then thank you very much.
Chris Heivly, author & entrepreneur in residence at Techstars, discusses the early days of MapQuest, Raleigh as a burgeoning tech city, and building up new tech communities. Build the Fort- Chris Heivly Techstars The Innovator's Dilemma- Clayton M. Christensen Rand McNally Startup Communities- Brad Feld Heivly.com The Lean Startup- Eric Ries Chris on Twitter See open positions at thoughtbot! Become a Sponsor of Giant Robots!
Бизнеcийн ухааны салбарын “библи” -үүдийн нэгт зүй ёсоор тооцогдох “The Innovator’s Dilemma" by Clayton Christensen номыг хүргэж байна. 1997 онд анх хэвлэгдсэн цагаасаа эхлэн бизнесийн салбарын шилдэг ном, түүнээс хойш 2011 онд The Economist сэтгүүлээс гаргасан бизнесийн салбар дахь хамгийн чухал 6 номны нэгээр нэрлэгдсэн ном бѳгѳѳд ѳдгѳѳ та бидний олонтаа сонссон Disruptive technology буюу тухайн салбарт тэсрэлт үзүүлж буй технологи гэдэг нэр томьёолол энэхүү номноос эхлэлтэй гэж бизнесийн салбарынхнаар хүлээн зѳвшѳѳрѳгдсѳн ном юм. Та энэхүү номноос яагаад чадвартай, агуу том компаниуд Disruptive technology-д ялагддаг, цаашлаад disruptive technology-той хэрхэн харьцах талаарх ойлголтыг авах болно.
TDIA serves as a living laboratory for advances in disruptive innovation theory and brings together the world's most fascinating disruptors whose stories will inspire anyone with an interest in the process of innovation. In 1997, Harvard Business School's Professor Clayton M. Christensen published his groundbreaking book The Innovator's Dilemma where he introduced his theory of Disruptive Innovation. Now entering its nineth year, the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards, helmed by co-founder Craig Hatkoff, in collaboration with Professor Christensen, celebrates disruptive innovation across the full spectrum of traditional and non-traditional domains ranging from technology, biomed, politics, education, healthcare, spirituality, religion, economics, sports, fashion and philanthropy. The awards focus on breakthroughs occurring at the intersection of technology and culture where frequent clashes and resistance to change impede social progress and solutions for some of the world's most vexing problems.
William Morice, II, M.D., Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology (DLMP) at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and President of Mayo Medical Laboratories, sits down with Gina Chiri-Osmond, Marketing Channel Manager at Mayo Medical Laboratories, to talk about “The Innovator’s Dilemma” by Clayton Christensen.
This week we breakdown "The Innovator's Solution," the 2003 follow-up to Clayton Christensen's business classic “The Innovator's Dilemma." Fifteen years on, do Christensen’s theories on growth and disruption still hold true? Adam is a believer. Matt?…not so much Check out this episode and more on the Random Talkers YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnne2uminGtDqMzFZb_U5g. Peruse our old segments, leave an Internet comment, or maybe just admire Matt’s amazingly consistent outfit choices. Thank you for your support! Coming up next week: the future of the (disruptive?!) blockchain
This week, we look at disruption in edtech and education. We talk about the Innovator's Dilemma and look to see where the much discussed education disruption may come to fruition. We also grade a recent list of "10 disruptions that will revolutionize education" from Peter Cookson Jr at Edweek. Where did our trio fall in grading out the predictions? Which did Brandon see as incomplete? And which did Mike give an A for aspirational?
Chad is joined by Amy Webb, Professor at the Stern School of Business NYU and Founder & Quantitative Futurist at The Future Today Institute, to discuss distilling trends, incremental decision making, and the role of organizational management on the outcome of a company's future. Future Today Institute The Innovator's Dilemma- Clayton M. Christensen Exponent Podcast Microsoft Tay Bot Botness Scale The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream- Amy Webb Become a Sponsor of Giant Robots!
Kristen interview David Rothschild from AAPOR. We know you'll share David's enthusiasm for talking about the industry, predictive markets, non-probability sampling, and the "innovator's dilemma." Find more about David here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Slice of MIT: Stories from MIT Presented by the MIT Alumni Association
Since the publication of Clay Christensen's The Innovators' Dilemma nearly two decades ago, Michael Tushman PhD '76 and his colleague Charles O'Reilly III have studied successful firms, large and small, that didn't exactly fit the new norm of disrutpive innovation. The result of this study is Lead and Disrupt: How to Solve the Innovator's Dilemma. In this interview, Tushman discusses his new book, a well-researched corrective for Christensen's formula for success in business. Read more: http://bit.ly/1pNnWHV Episode Transcript: https://bit.ly/2uNh5WO
Over the last few decades this is probably the most quoted book on innovation. I select the most relevant and practical insights from this book written by a noted Harvard professor. These are the insights I believe can help almost any business with any innovation need.
This episode adds a new dimension to our discussions with innovators, by taking us inside a huge company - American Express. My guest is Courtney Kelso, who leads the Amex product and marketing team in Enterprise Growth. I talked with Courtney about two things. First, their strategic move into creating an inclusive set of services, through Bluebird and Serve. And second, what it takes to innovate inside a big company. Interestingly, the two are linked. Their work on building an inclusive strategy is the engine of innovation at American Express. Think about trying to drive disruptive innovation in an organization that's not only enormous and global, but is also 165 years old - one of the oldest financial brands anywhere. As Courtney says, American Express was a freight company, moving Americans west in the 1800's. Innovation and adaptation are in its corporate DNA, but change at big companies is hard. And then also think about taking a company like American Express, which has always epitomized elite, high-prestige financial services, and shifting it from being an exclusive brand to an inclusive brand. It's a fascinating saga, full of lessons for everyone. Inclusion within a famously "exclusive" brand The story starts about five years ago, when American Express looked hard at the changes underway in how people think about both money and technology, and especially mobile -- the ability to run most of your financial life from your phone. They also pondered the fact that Amex was missing an enormous market in the so-called underserved, estimated to be between 65 and 140 million people in the United States - in other words, not a niche. They realized that the economic problems created and worsened in the Great Recession had converged with an emerging set of technology solutions. American Express responded by launching the Enterprise Growth Group, which Courtney joined immediately. The goal was to go after totally different customers with different product sets. They unveiled an alpha version of Serve in March of 2011 , and then built the Bluebird card, aiming to be part digital wallet, part bank alternative, and part prepaid card . The goal was to reach Americans who struggle to manage and move their money or, as Courtney puts it, the people who are either excluded from the mainstream economy or "unhappily banked." An early move was to create a partnership with Wal-Mart to focus on these needs. Along the way, American Express financed the movie, Spent, which brings these customers' needs to life and demonstrates that "it's expensive to be poor." If you haven't seen Spent and shared it in your organization, I recommend doing so. In our conversation, Courtney tells us why they made these changes, how they did it, their efforts to "be respectful" to a customer group they didn't know, what they expected, what they learned about them, and what has surprised them. They undertook a "walk talk chalk," encouraging their leaders to step into the shoes of the kinds of customers who appear in Spent by, for instance, learning what it's like to stand in line on a Friday night to cash to check. They also connected with the Center for Financial Services Innovation (note that I serve on CFSI's board), to bring its recommended Compass Principles into designing these products. They focused human-centered design thinking on challenges like smoothing out financial "lumpiness" for people who earn enough money to pay their bills, but don't have the right amount at the right time. Courtney describes the fascinating and varied ways customers immediately began using the new tools - including as a bank account alternative and to find ways to save. She talks about what people want most. She talks about revelations about the preferences of young customers today, and how savvy they are in using mobile services. Today, her group bases every product design decision on the preferences of mobile users (unlike, say, a bank that views mobile as just a new channel for old products). She explains how, with critical mass established on the platform, they can push the envelope with new features, including the first-ever rewards program on a prepaid debit card. And she shares a progress report -- over $7 billion loaded on the platform as of March 2015, with merchant spend up 300% from 2012 to 2013, and 90% of these customers being new to American Express. Innovation In September 2014, these efforts evolved into creation of FILABs - the financial innovation labs - through which American Express brings together researchers and academics with real live products. After inviting proposals, they selected three partners -- a nonprofit in behavioral science called Ideas 42, along with UC Berkeley and a team of researchers from UCLA. The goal is to use design thinking and agile development methodology to make financial products drive financial health. They are testing new ideas for both processes and products, from nudges and alerts to auto savings and debiting, to see what works. Some of this is proceeding under the aegis of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Project Catalyst, which seeks to foster and evaluate fintech innovation. They'll be releasing significant findings in the near future. In our conversation, I asked Courtney how to innovate in a great big company - after all, her Enterprise Growth group, itself, has over 1,000 people. Her answers may surprise you - including her comment that their most exciting recent innovation idea came from (of all places) the general counsel's office. It's fun to hear the excitement in her voice as she talks about what doesn't work, and what does. Two more observations before we listen to Courtney. In our talk she said, "I'll be honest," and explains that launching an "inclusion" strategy raised some worries about potential harm to the invaluable American Express brand, which had been painstakingly built over 165 years to be synonymous with prestige. So, they surveyed their top-tier customer base, asking whether Bluebird and Serve made them think worse, or better, of American Express. The results were resoundingly positive. Second, think about the picture she paints. She says the company could see, five years ago, that the financial landscape was changing and American Express would have to disrupt, before they were disrupted. She says CEO Ken Chenault launched the enterprise growth initiative to "cannibalize" American Express from inside, through innovation. I'm at Harvard this year writing a book on innovation and regulation, which recently prompted me to read Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen's classic, The Innovators Dilemma and newer related work. One of his insights is that disruptive innovation usually must begin in markets that are lower-margin and less attractive than the ones served by industry leaders. The disruptions gestate and develop in these side-markets, and then eventually burst into the mainstream with a better, cheaper product - often too late for the industry's leading firms to adjust. American Express seems to be following something like this logic, putting its innovation engine in the hands of people trying to reach a separate market that's traditionally been "underserved." The results to date are fascinating. Perhaps it's not a coincidence that Courtney says the whole company now routinely recruits from her team. Here is more on some of the topics we discussed: CFSI's Compass Principles CFPB's Project Catalyst project with American Express Ideas 42 The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries The Innovator's Dilemma, by Clayton M. Christensen Please subscribe to the podcast by opening your favorite podcast app and searching for "Jo Ann Barefoot", or in iTunes. If you enjoy our work to bring together thought provoking ideas and people please consider a contribution to support the site. Donate
In this episode of The Investor's Podcast, we talk about billionaire Jeff Bezos, Mark Cuban, and Michael Bloomberg's favorite book, The Innovator's Dilemma.Click here to get full access to our show notes.
Jim and Devin discuss the Innovator's Dilemma and Blue Ocean Strategy as it relates to middle market portfolio companies.