Good morning.
Ever since Clayton Christensen published The Innovator's Dilemma a quarter century ago, “disrupt or be disrupted” has been a byword of business. But a new book out this week, Beyond Disruption, challenges that conventional wisdom. Written by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, authors of Blue Ocean Strategy, it argues business has become too focused on disruption. Why attack well-entrenched incumbents when the world offers so many opportunities to create value in undefined markets? CEOs would do better for themselves and for society if they pursued nondisruptive innovation. Their examples: Go-Pro, Square, Kickstarter, or—one of my personal favorites—Mick Ebeling of Not Impossible Labs. To those who argue such opportunities are few and far between, Kim and Mauborgne say nonsense. All that’s missing is creativity. And by avoiding disruption, companies can assure they create more value for society than they destroy.
