A footnote on disruptive innovation

Buzzwords such as disruptive innovation and creative destruction are popular among managers and officials who are neither innovative nor creative, but merely disruptive and destructive.

Formulas for success

Clayton Christensen

If there ever was an undiscovered formula for business success, it would be sure to work only for the first person who tried it.  By the time the 10th or the 100th person adopted it, it would be at best a minimum requirement and at worst a waste of time because it would have been superseded by a new formula.

I may have been over-hasty in dismissing Jill Lepore’s article in the New Yorker about the flaws in Clayton Christensen’s theory of “disruptive innovation.”  To the extent that Christensen and others make this idea a one-size-fits-all formula for success, they are foolish.

What I got from Clayton Christensen’s writings is a warning not to be blindsided through neglect of basic skills and low-end activities.  I think his warning is true and important, and is as valuable for individuals as for organizations.

But Christensen’s ideas are being treated as a magic formula, and “disruptive innovation” is being used as a buzzword to justify mere disruption.  Lepore is absolutely right in her harsh criticism of “disruptive innovation” as the latest business fad.

[Update 6/20/14].  Here’s another critique of Christensen.

[Update 6/21/14]  Christensen’s reply to Jill Lepore.

[Update 6/24/14]  Here’s a balanced assessment of Christensen.