I had given up on the business press in the past few years, since moving out of the B-school circles into those of the church. But a parishioner gave me a copy of Harvard Magazine, July-August 2014 issue, not the B-School mag, but a semi-independent publication, with Harvard U ties. The cover article describes Clayton Christensen on innovation, from his book The Innovator's Dilemma, which made him a best-selling (in business press circles) author. His theory of 'disruptive innovation' gave a whole new vocabulary for describing market innovation and the phenomenon of entrepreneurial success based on disruptive thinking. Basically, disruptive innovation describes the phenomenon of innovators gathering around the needs of people whose needs are not being served by established businesses who make and market established products. Innovators find ways to pay attention to those who are not consuming; they figure out how to compete with 'non-consumption.'
Christensen started a consulting firm Innosite--that works with established companies seeking to defend their core businesses and at the same time foster innovation. From the article: "It's hard to do both," says David Duncan, a senior partner at Innosite..."As successful companies get bigger, their growth trajectories flatten out, and they need to find new ways to expand. But that will look different from what they did in the past. Most are so focused on maintaining their core business that when push comes to shove, the core will almost always kill off the disruptive innovation--the new thing."
How to protect the innovators? Duncan again: "What can work is to separate out the disruptive entity, protect it, and let it operate by a different set of rules than the core business." 1,001 New Worshiping Communities...we hope your are protected and given the latitude by our beloved denomination to operate by a different set of rules. You have my vote!
A jump to the church is more than obvious. Disruptive innovators in the
church figure out how to bring their Christian message to people who
haven't heard about it, without the expensive, difficult process of
building church buildings and staffing them with full-time, graduate
school trained clergy.
His more recent book, How Will You Measure Your Life?, was the subject of the insert that first piqued my parishioner's curiosity. Christensen is a Mormon and the book describes the intersection of his life's work and his faith. I'm sure that Harvard Magazine had some soul-searching of its own to do in calling attention to Christensen's faith, but kudos to them for taking it seriously. Christensen can move easily between Latter-Day Saints and the business world, maybe a bit too easily, but his linkages give us food for thought. Thanks, Bill, for the reference.
