By Clayton Christensen

Preface

Why is success so difficult to sustain?

Catering to the best customers and investing the most successful products often lead to companies’ demise

Is successful innovation random?

Introduction

Companies usually engineer their own demise during times when they are highly regarded

Technology encompasses any way firms use resources

Sustaining technologies are innovations geared towards short term improvements of existing products. Disruptive innovation often leads to worse performance short term and precipitates many firms’ failures

Innovation often outpaces market demand for technology

Small markets don’t solve growth needs of large companies

Cost structures of mature companies leave them with a lack of agility to pursue low margin disruptive technology

Numerically, emerging markets cannot be growth engines for large companies early on

Markets that don’t exist can’t be analyzed

An organizations capabilities define its disabilities

Technology often outpaces customer demand

Established companies must keep a finger on the pulse of disruptive innovations while being careful not to neglect their core customer base — this is a delicate balance to strike