The Innovator's Dilemma.

• Author: Lawrence, Alex
• Position: Brief article - Book review

The Innovator's Dilemma was first published in 1997. There is a reason why I chose to review a book that is almost 15 years old. The Innovator's Dilemma is entirely current and a must read.

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The Innovator's Dilemma is about how large, successful companies lose their market leadership to what start out as small, unknown challengers. The book is for companies large and small; those wanting to disrupt, and those not wanting to be disrupted.

Being the market leader produces complex challenges for new technologies. Christensen rightfully describes the difficult process of being disruptive when you are the incumbent. A few things he shares that I think are important:

Markets that don't exist are tough to analyze, thus failure is an inevitable step in the disruptive process. Companies need to be willing to risk and fail. This is harder for large companies. Oftentimes when there is more to lose there is a lower tolerance for risk. Not risking can in fact be the biggest risk of all.

New disruptions are found most often in smaller markets. This is why disruption favors the startup; they often work closely with small customer...