The Innovator's Dilemma

The Innovator’s Dilemma
Clayton M. Christensen

“For instance, is a notebook better than a mainframe? This is an ambiguous question because the notebook computer established a completely new performance trajectory, with a definition of performance that differs substantially from the way mainframe performance is measured.”
pg. 9

“Three factors - the promise of upmarket margins, the simultaneous upmarket movement of many of a company’s customers, and the difficulty of cutting costs to move downmarket profitably - together create powerful barriers to downward mobility.”
pg. 87

The insatiable chasing of growth lures companies upwards rather then focusing around them.
“But while selling 43,000 units was viewed as an IPO qualifying triumph in the smaller Apple of 1979, selling 140,000 Newtons was viewed as a failure in the giant Apple of 1994.”
pg. 135<

“Because failure is intrinsic to the process off finding new markets for disruptive technologies, the inability or unwillingness of individual managers to put their careers at risk acts as a powerful deterrent to the movement of established firms into the value networks created by those technologies.”
pg. 160