Using the rational, analytical investment processes that most well-managed companies have developed, it is nearly impossible to build a logical case for diverting resources from known customer needs in established markets to markets and customers that seem insignificant or do not yet exist.
Discovery-Driven Planning with Rita Gunther McGrath The Clayton Christensen Tribute
As Clayton Christensen reiterated throughout his work, capable managers do not become incapable overnight; they act in what they believe is in the best interests of the organisation they serve. For the executives in Western Union, there was simply no way they could have anticipated that the telephone would ever get good enough to be a competitive threat. As the great innovator Buckminster Fuller said, “There is nothing in the caterpillar that tells you it will be a butterfly.”
Joseph L. Bower is the father of Resource Allocation theory included in his 1970 groundbreaking book, Managing the Resource Allocation Process.
He has been a leader in general management at Harvard Business School for over 5 decades where he is the Donald K. David Professor Emeritus.
He was Clayton Christensen’s doctoral thesis adviser and worked with Clay to develop and stress test his theories.
He is with us today to recognise his friend and revisit that famous 1995 article,
“Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave” that preceded the Innovator’s Dilemma
In a way this episode is a prequel to part one.
It is a great honour to welcome for the hour or Bower: Professor Joseph L. Bower
In The Brain-Friendly Workplace, Friederike Fabritius highlights the basic fact that we need more thought diversity and that people’s motivations differ very much.
“Many of us are living a very narrow life; we have self-inflicted blinkers on. Widen your view, widen your mind, widen your life.” — Marcus Aurelius
The information we absorb dramatically impacts how we perceive the world.
Alex Osterwalder offers an understanding of the Explore-Exploit Continuum will help executives and innovation teams put in place the right investment and management processes, the required skill set and culture to explore new business ideas as successfully as they exploit current businesses.
When you change your perspective of time and see it as non-linear, it helps you realise that a step backwards is a natural part of renewal. When you perceive time as non-linear, it enables you to reinvent, renew and regenerate safely in the knowledge that your old bloom and your new bud co-exist, each supporting your magnificent present.
The beginning of a new career is the end of an old one. For anyone struggling with change, remember that Winter always precedes Spring.
Co-author of “Eat Sleep Innovate”, Paul Cobban, shares the importance of reframing your competitive set and the concept of MOJO Meetings and Wreckoon.