The Innovators Solution: Creating
and Sustaining Successful Growth by
Michael E. Raynor
Fascinating Book That Every Product Marketing Professional Should Read
The Growth Paradox At best one company in ten is able to sustain
profitable growth. Yet capital markets demand that all companies seek it
relentlessly and mercilessly punish those who fail. Why is consistent,
persistent growth so difficult to achieve? Surprisingly, it’s not for lack of
great ideas or capable managers, nor is it because customers are too
fickle or innovation too unpredictable. Innovation fails, say Clayton M.
Christensen and Michael E. Raynor, because organizations unwittingly
strip the disruptive potential from new ideas before they ever see the light
of day. In his worldwide bestseller The Innovator’s Dilemma,
Christensen explained how industry leaders get blindsided by disruptive
innovations precisely because they focus too closely on their most
profitable customers and businesses. The Innovator’s Solution shows how
companies get to the other side of this dilemma, creating disruptions rather

than being destroyed by them. Drawing on years of in-depth research
and illustrated by company examples across many industries, Christensen
and Raynor argue that innovation can be a predictable process that
delivers sustainable, profitable growth. They identify the forces that cause
managers to make bad decisions as they package and shape new ideas—
and offer new frameworks to help managers create the right conditions, at
the right time, for a disruption to succeed. The Innovator’s Solution
addresses a wide range of issues, including: • How can we tell if an idea
has disruptive potential?
• Which competitive situations favor incumbents, and which favor entrants?
• Which customer segments are primed to embrace a new offering?
• Which activities should we outsource, and which should we keep in-
house?
• How should we structure and fund a new venture?
• How do we choose the right managers to lead it?
• How can we position ourselves where profits will be made in the future?
Revealing counterintuitive insights that will change your perspective on
innovation forever, this landmark book shows how to create a disruptive
growth engine that fuels ongoing success.
Personal Review: The Innovators Solution: Creating and
Sustaining Successful Growth by Michael E. Raynor
This is turning common marketing and product development wisdom on its
head. The basic idea is that you should not follow the masses, go with the
flow or to look at previous successes to define your future products and
services. Instead look at how people use products and services in their
every day life and develop something that will do it better (cheaper, faster,
more pleasant).
I loved the airport example about the smart phone...for years we're sold
that we need to bring all the office applications onto the berries and PDAs
(think Word, Excel, PowerPoint)...your office away from office for all these
road warriors. Well it turns out, people don't really care to do office work
while on the road. When they have 5-10 minutes to kill at the airport people
(when not talking on the phone) like to read the paper, play games, browse
through magazines, check sports and stocks online and watch TV. So your
competition is not the desktop applications but the newspapers, TV and
the entertainment. Voila, need to figure out how to bring that onto the
berries/PDA instead of how to cram rich SW apps on the screen.
Another great example was the smoothie cafe. The owners tried all the
usual marketing techniques (discounts, different flavors, names) to
increase sales to no success. Then they analyzed for a whole week how

people use their product. They find out in the morning most people bought
a smoothie as a better on-the-go breakfast alternative (coffee was not
fulfilling, bananas were messy, doughnuts were less healthy, sandwiches
hard to maneuver while driving etc). In the afternoon moms with kids were
most of the customers. They bought a smoothie to give a healthier, more
fulfilling and cheaper snack to the kids. So the owners adjusted the product
to these 2 main uses instead of one universal change across the board.
The book teaches you a new way to look at competition and what you
need to innovate against:
Stop looking at your direct competitors to think about innovation (if we had
that feature as they did, if we had more widgets, more colors, more
sizes...) instead ask yourself if people are not buying this kind of product /
service, then what are they doing today to fulfill the need? And so that is
your real competition. Sometimes they do nothing in which case you have
a virgin territory to explore.
The book warns the change is not easy and in fact is susceptible to lot of
push back. There are suggestions and practical examples on how to start
implementing this new thinking in the organization.
If anything the book it's a very refreshing look on the strategic planning
required to building new products and services. Definitely a great
discussion point.
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