Be innovative, but design what meets consumers' needs
Eleven years ago, Clayton Christensen's book, "The Innovator's Dilemma," was a bestseller. He showed how innovation could become a form of trap.
Companies invest large amounts of time and money in innovation, but then lack the ability to make their creations viable commercially. The investment never yields a return. Meanwhile, other less innovative companies figure out how to capitalize on the opportunity and go on to make a fortune, leaving the original innovator languishing.
This new book, "The Innovator's Guide to Growth," is not by Christensen, but his stamp is all over it. He wrote the foreword, and three of the four authors are consultants with Innosight, the consulting firm he founded (the fourth is an executive at Motorola Inc.). It can be assumed that the writers have his approval.
The book is meant to pick up where "The Innovator's Dilemma" left off. "The odds remain stacked against the growth-seeking innovator," the authors say, "whether he or she is an entrepreneur or a manager inside a deep-pocketed incumbent. Most start-up companies . . . fail. Most internal innovation effort delivers disappointing returns."
This book is billed as the solution to the problem: "Readers who heed this book's advice will meaningfully improve their ability to spot and seize opportunities for growth."
Bold words, but does "The Innovator's Guide to Growth" deliver?
The initial signs are not good. The title is mundane and the introduction is disappointingly full of phrases such as "disruptive innovation as a key growth lever," which could mean almost anything.
But the book rapidly becomes better. The authors argue that the most important driver of innovation is not technological change, but customer needs.
One chapter covers what they call "nonconsumers" -- people who are not buying or using existing products. Not all nonconsumers could become consumers. Those who would never buy a product must be identified and set aside so that marketing effort is not wasted.
For the remaining nonconsumers, the question must then be asked: What holds them back? The authors identify four main classes of constraint: skills (people do not know how to use the product); wealth (they cannot afford it); access (they do not know where to buy it); and time (they do not have time to look for the product or to use it).
