The Innovator's Solution, with a New Foreword
One book, placed in its field — what Clayton M. Christensen's book gets right, where it goes further than the rest, and what the rest of the field adds.
Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide · bicycle.guide/guides/profile-innovators_solution
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The Innovator's Solution, with a New Foreword
One book, placed in its field — what Clayton M. Christensen's book gets right, where it goes further than the rest, and what the rest of the field adds.
Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide · bicycle.guide/guides/profile-innovators_solution
The problem
Venture Profitability and Growth erodes when it is left to instinct instead of method.
You were taught the moves piecemeal, never the whole model.
The Innovator's Solution, with a New Foreword · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
The model
- 01Strategic Choice of Innovation Type
- 02Choice of Product Architecture
- 03Choice of Organizational Design
- 04Choice of Venture Funding Profile
- 05Choice of Strategy Process
- 06Fit with Market Circumstance
- 07Asymmetry of Motivation
- 08Alignment with Venture Values
The Innovator's Solution, with a New Foreword · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 1 of 5 · Strategic Choice of Innovation Type
Sustaining innovations reliably favor the incumbent because they have every reason and resource to win; new entrants should default away from them.
Misconception
Practitioners believe 'disruptive' means a dramatic technological breakthrough or a radically better product.
Reality
Disruption is a market-position strategy, not a technology grade; a disruptive offering is usually inferior on the metrics mainstream customers value, winning instead by serving the overserved or the nonconsuming with something simpler and cheaper.
The Innovator's Solution, with a New Foreword · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 2 of 5 · Choice of Product Architecture
Architecture is a moving target: the profitable design flips from interdependent to modular as customer demands become satisfiable.
Misconception
Practitioners assume modular, open architectures are inherently more advanced and always the smarter long-term bet.
Reality
Interdependent architectures are correct precisely when products are not yet good enough, because wringing out maximum performance requires optimizing across component boundaries that a modular interface would freeze.
The Innovator's Solution, with a New Foreword · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 3 of 5 · Choice of Organizational Design
The decision hinges on values fit, not on the newness of the technology or the enthusiasm of the champion.
Misconception
Managers believe a capable, committed team and executive sponsorship are enough to protect a new venture inside the core organization.
Reality
Organizations reliably do what their values reward, and the mainstream's values—defined by its cost structure and the size of opportunity it needs—will override any team's intentions when priorities compete.
The Innovator's Solution, with a New Foreword · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 4 of 5 · Choice of Venture Funding Profile
Good money for a new venture is impatient for profit and patient for growth—the opposite of typical growth-stage capital.
Misconception
Founders and boards assume that patient, deep-pocketed capital that tolerates slow profits gives a new venture the best shot.
Reality
Capital that is impatient for profit but patient for growth forces the venture to discover a viable, profitable model early on a small scale; capital impatient for growth pushes premature expansion that masks the absence of a business.
The Innovator's Solution, with a New Foreword · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 5 of 5 · Choice of Strategy Process
Match the process to the knowability of the market: deliberate for the known, emergent for the uncertain.
Misconception
Managers treat a rigorous, data-driven strategic plan as the mark of professionalism regardless of how novel the opportunity is.
Reality
Deliberate strategy works only when the key variables are already known and stable; in the uncertain conditions of most new disruptive markets, the viable strategy must be discovered emergently through cheap, fast iteration.
The Innovator's Solution, with a New Foreword · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
A framework to use
RPV Framework for Organizational Design
This framework is part of the full guide. See the guide →
The Innovator's Solution, with a New Foreword · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
The cheat sheet
- Strategic Choice of Innovation TypeSustaining innovations reliably favor the incumbent because they have every reason and resource to win; new entrants should default away from them.
- Choice of Product ArchitectureArchitecture is a moving target: the profitable design flips from interdependent to modular as customer demands become satisfiable.
- Choice of Organizational DesignThe decision hinges on values fit, not on the newness of the technology or the enthusiasm of the champion.
- Choice of Venture Funding ProfileGood money for a new venture is impatient for profit and patient for growth—the opposite of typical growth-stage capital.
- Choice of Strategy ProcessMatch the process to the knowability of the market: deliberate for the known, emergent for the uncertain.
- Fit with Market Circumstance'Good enough' is a moving relationship between performance and customer need, not a fixed product attribute.
- Asymmetry of MotivationThe safest ground is where incumbents are economically motivated to run away, not merely too distracted to fight.
- Alignment with Venture ValuesAn organization's values determine what it will and won't prioritize far more reliably than its intentions do.
The Innovator's Solution, with a New Foreword · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Sources
- The Innovator_s Solution, with a New Foreword — Clayton M. Christensen
The Innovator's Solution, with a New Foreword · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide