Publisher's Weekly Review
Christensen (The Innovator's Dilemma) analyzes the strategies that allow corporations to successfully grow new businesses and outpace the other players in the marketplace. Christensen's earlier book examined how focusing on profits can destroy even well-run corporations, while this book focuses on companies expanding by being "disruptors" who are able to outpace their entrenched competition. The authors (Christensen is a professor at Harvard Business School and Raynor, a director at Deloitte Research) examine the nine business decisions integral to growth, including product development, organizational structure, financing and key customer base. They cite such companies as IBM, AT&T, Sony, Microsoft and others to illustrate their points. Generally, the writing is clear and specific. For example, in discussing whether a company has the resources necessary for growth, the authors say, "In order to be confident that managers have developed the skills required to succeed at a new assignment, one should examine the sorts of problems they have wrestled with in the past. It is not as important that managers have succeeded with the problem as it is for them to have wrestled with it and developed the skills and intuition for how to meet the challenge successfully the next time around"; they then provide a real-life example of a software company. Similar important strategies give readers insights that they can use in their own workplaces. People looking for quick fixes may find the charts, diagrams and extensive footnotes daunting, but readers familiar with more technical business management tomes will find this one both stimulating and beneficial. (Oct.) Forecast: Given the track record of Christensen's previous book along with extensive publicity and advertising, this one is likely to be a strong seller immediately. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Choice Review
Many new products fail, not because their managers are lazy or risk averse, but because they confuse product markets with customer needs. Customers "hire" products to do certain jobs; these jobs can be met by products in multiple market segments. Christensen (Harvard Business School) and Raynor (director, Deloitte Services LP) report that successful new products categorize competitors differently, identifying weaknesses in meeting customers' needs. Similar to the classic Blue Ocean Strategy, by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne (2005), this book (a follow up to the authors' 2003 work of the same title) argues that firms seeking growth should "compete against non-consumption." This approach differs from that presented in Return on Strategy by Michael Moesgaard Andersen, Morten Froholdt, and Flemming Poulfelt (CH, Aug'10, 47-6953) by stressing innovations over market segments. The book builds on Christensen's prior work on disruptive technology, The Innovator's Dilemma (2000). Although some vignettes are dated, many still seem fresh, such as segmenting milkshakes by customer problems (i.e., milkshakes compete with breakfast foods and win because they lessen the boredom of long morning commutes). A great read for those unfamiliar with the 2003 book, but less so for those who have the earlier work. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, professionals. J. J. Janney University of Dayton
