Article contributed to illuminem as part of my Reclaiming Entrepreneurship series.
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In the Innovator’s Dilemma, a book that has achieved cult status in tech circles, Clay Christensen explains why incumbents, despite the vast resources they have access to and wield, are nonetheless regularly disrupted by scrappy innovators. His work is most often used and cited in the realm of technological innovation as it is commonly understood: engineering, software, pharmaceuticals and the like.
The pattern he uncovers is that a newcomer comes along with a technology that, while still immature in terms of reliability and ecosystem support, delivers a vastly superior outcome when it works as intended.
A classic example is that of the ice trade.
While incumbents were busy inventing better and more efficient ice harvesting techniques, innovators were developing ice factories to produce ice directly in urban centres (or much closer to them at least). Later on, while factory owners were busy improving their ice-making technology, innovators were developing refrigeration units, completely taking over the market in a few decades by supplying the required outcome directly at the point of need: inside your home.
This analogy is somewhat oversimplified as the history of refrigeration is not linear. But it serves to illustrate the concept very well.
There is a particular difference however between the first transition and the second. While refrigeration units — fridges and freezers — can still produce ice, ice itself is no longer the means of preserving food. That job is now fulfilled by refrigerants.
This distinction is important because it leads to his concept of Jobs to be Done.
The job is not ice production. The job is food preservation.
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