Seeing What's Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: BookSHELF - Book Review

Seeing What's Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change. By Clayton M. Christensen, Scott D. Anthony and Erik A. Roth. Harvard Business School Press, 312 pages. $29.95.

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Given the remarkable reach and success of his earlier books, The Innovator's Dilemma and The Innovator's Solution, it isn't surprising that Clayton Christensen's newest book is also about innovation. Here, he and two co-authors tackle the notion that even without proprietary knowledge, analysts can create models that can successfully surmise how certain industries will evolve and which strategies will succeed.

Christensen, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, along with Anthony, a partner at consulting firm Innosight LLC, and Roth, a consultant with McKinsey & Co., propound an argument that "a structured, rigorous process of looking at an industry or industry segment through the lenses of the theories of innovation provides powerful insights not readily observable to the naked eye." They detail these grounding tenets in the first part of the book, then focus on how to use the theories to assess the future of five distinct industries: aviation, education...