Clayton Christensen was in town (and nobody invited me)

I've been sold on the validity and intelligence of Clayton Christensen's thesis in The Innovator's Dilemma (and Innovator's Solution). It resonates with me, to say the least. So, I've been wanting to meet with him and (Solution's co-author Michael Raynor) since the beginning of the year. So, when he's in Ottawa and I didn't know (so I couldn't even wangle an invite somehow -- where are you loyal readers anyway??), I get edgy.

Anyway, he apparently wowed them at Industry Canada and Bell Canada, where he spoke. Here, in the Globe and Mail article that covered it, are a few words that give me hope for the atypical skill set and field of vision that I possess and jealously refuse to change [to the typical, "accepted" form of inverted monitoring that goes on within industries]:

Prof. Christensen, who also worked as an assistant to two U.S. transportation secretaries during the Reagan years, also said too many companies view their competitors as the other key players in their sectors, instead of other products that compete to do the same job for the customer.

Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry, for example, may compete more for the business traveller's spare time with newspapers, magazines, and CNN's airport news than with other handheld device makers such as Palm Inc. Poor market research contributes heavily to the fact that about 75 per cent of new products fail, he said.

Amen.

Posted by Grayson at March 30, 2004 07:55 AM