How Companies Can Avoid the Innovator’s Dilemma

Great summary of HBS Professor Clay Christensen’s famous “Innovators Dilemma” theory and how it applies to today’s consumer tech world. I like that it boils it down to plain english and avoids MBA-like obfuscation:

1) Have a family of brands to encourage innovation

It’s hard to innovate on a single, massively popular product. So, successful consumer companies often end up with new ones in addition to their flagship efforts.

2) Be willing to cannibalize your current product before someone else does

Steve Jobs: “If you don’t cannibalize yourself, someone else will.”

A really memorable takeaway line:

“The internet is not a friendly place. Things that don’t stay relevant don’t even get the luxury of leaving ruins. They disappear.”