A Review: The Innovator's Dilemma

Moving outside of the IDEO literature, I've been working my way through the pages of Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma.  I was quite interested in chapter 8 where it discusses the actual practicality and effects design thinking has upon a work space.  Specifically it touches on how the process is expected to work from an idea of innovation to creation of a finished product.

Christensen touches on several topics, listed in subsections.  The first of which is the framework of the business.  Three distinct elements are derived from the company's framework: Resources, Process, and Values.  No company is without these as they have an undeniable effect upon the ability to identify one's own capabilities and disabilities.  When a company or person is better able to understand these points, and what role they play in their capabilities, they can are better prepared to face their own disabilities.

He then goes into speaking about the relationship specifically between Processes and Values.  The combination of these two is without question, and leads to understanding something Christensen refers to as "Sustaining vs. Disruptive Technologies."  Simply put, not all innovations merit creation.  It is more than possible that while innovative, it will not produce results in a marketplace, and thus is not worth wasting time on.  These disruptive technologies can often be hard to see for what they truly are, so knowing how to expand the views of one's own self or company is important to say the least.  In summery, it is dependent more-so on the relationship of technological innovation vs. market need.

Another subtopic presented is the idea of how to cope with change by creating more capabilities within the organization.  This growth is important as it allows the fluid reaction of a company to remain relevant in a marketplace.  He breaks this process down into three key processes:

• "Acquire a different Organization whose processes and values are a close match with the new task."

• "Try to change the processes and values of the current organization."

• "Separate out the independent organization and develop within it the new processes and values that are required to solve the new problem."

Using these processes, a company can begin to understand how and where it can alter it's previous Processes and/or Resources to yield new results.  This can conflict with Values held by the company, and so it can be difficult to react to; but can indeed be invigorating and stimulating to the desired goal of the organization.  Christensen breaks this process down into a graphical representation, which of course captures the process in a simple, yet effective manner.

Overall it has been a great read.  I was elated to see that my own understanding of the application of Design Thinking in a work space aligned quite well with that of Christensen's work.  I believe this chapter not only captures the idea of it's importance, but also shows a very simple route to take to achieve optimal results for any number of processes.  As I said before, one of the hardest elements to overcome (besides that of taking the first step) is when a newly discovered process conflicts with a value held by the company.  At that point it comes to the company to determine what is more important.


"Ensuring that capable people are ensconced in capable organizations is a major management responsibility in an age such as ours, when the ability to cope with accelerating change has become so critical."