There is no single right answer or path forward, but there is one right way to frame the problem.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
The mistake that makes launching a venture expensive is when you try to make a disruptive technology so good that it can compete on a quality basis with an established product.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Focusing too much on perfecting a new technology can hinder its success against established products.
In this quote, Clayton M. Christensen emphasizes that startups often make the mistake of over-engineering their disruptive technologies to match the quality of existing products, which can lead to unnecessary expenses and delays. Instead, he suggests that new ventures should prioritize innovation and uniqueness over direct competition on quality, allowing them to carve out their market niche more effectively.
Themes
Disruptive TechnologyVentureQualityInnovationCompetition
In practice
Example use cases
In a startup pitch, to emphasize the importance of innovation over perfection.
More from Clayton M. Christensen
All quotes →Understanding motivation is one of the most important things we can do in our lives, because it has such a bearing on why we do the things we do and whether we enjoy them or not.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
Companies, in fact, are specifically organized to under-invest in disruptive innovations! This is one reason why we often suggest that companies set up separate teams or groups to commercialize disruptive innovations. When disruptive innovations have to fight with other innovations for resources, they tend to lose out.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
There is no evidence that success in business will make us happy people or allow us to have happy families.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
By definition, big data cannot yield complicated descriptions of causality. Especially in healthcare. Almost all of our diseases occur in the intersections of systems in the body.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
The breakthrough innovations come when the tension is greatest and the resources are most limited. That's when people are actually a lot more open to rethinking the fundamental way they do business.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
Similar quotes
Essentially, every technology you have ever heard of, where electrons move from here to there, has the potential to be revolutionized by the availability of molecular wires made up of carbon. Organic chemists will start building devices. Molecular electronics could become reality.
Richard SmalleyRead
It's wonderful to move forward technologically, but we cannot forget that we are human beings who thrive on relationships, who thrive on interconnectivity, who thrive on sharing your feelings and emotions.
Goldie HawnRead
If you and your skills are a complement to the computer, your wage and labor market prospects are likely to be cheery. If your skills do not complement the computer, you may want to address that mismatch. Ever more people are starting to fall on one side of the divide or the other. That's why 'average is over.'
Tyler CowenRead
Many of us now expect our online activities to be recorded and analyzed, but we assume the physical spaces we inhabit are different. The data broker industry doesn't see it that way. To them, even the act of walking down the street is a legitimate data set to be captured, catalogued, and exploited.
Kate CrawfordRead
The Internet was done so well that most people think of it as a natural resource like the Pacific Ocean, rather than something that was man-made. When was the last time a technology with a scale like that was so error-free? The Web, in comparison, is a joke. The Web was done by amateurs.
Alan KayRead
Our whole goal in life is to give you something you didn’t know you wanted and then once you get it, you can’t imagine your life without it… and you can count on apple doing that.
Tim CookRead