MIT Sloan Management Review - Spring 2020

94 Pages·2020·19.58 MB·English

MITSlo

Management Review

sloanreview.mit.edu
SPRING 2020 • VOL. 61 • NO. 3

A SPECIAL ISSUE, IN FOND MEMORY OF
CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN

WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO INNOVATE AND
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Copyright © 2020 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.

SPRING 2020 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW 1
EVGENIA ELISEEVA

F R O M T H E E D I T O R

The Original Disrupter

W

hen Clayton Christensen
and I first appeared at an
event together to discuss
a book that he and I had
coauthored, I wasn’t sur-
prised to see a crowd gathering to talk to him after
we spoke. The opportunity to share an observation
or ask a question of Clay, one of the world’s truly
original thinkers, was special. But I had to laugh at
how often that moment turned into a request for a
selfie with him. Clay had clearly become a rock star
of management thinking. He was patient with
every photo request, grateful that a new generation
was interested in his ideas, and eager to learn how
those ideas were being used and advanced.
I was honored to be asked by the editors of MIT
Sloan Management Review to guest-edit the spring
2020 issue on the future of innovation. Having
spent the past decade working closely with Clay, I’d
had the chance to explore a wide range of relevant
topics with him, including how the coming of AI,

the rapid speed of innovation, and easy access to
capital will affect how companies compete in the
years ahead — all topics we explore in this issue.
I started working with the team at MIT SMR well
before Clay’s death in January 2020, so I was able to
sit down with him for what would be his last inter-
view. Clay had continually refined his own theories
over the years, but he was still wrestling with many
questions, as you’ll see in our Q&A on page 21.
He was pleased to learn how the academics and
practitioners featured in this special issue were
thinking about some of the biggest innovation
challenges looming for companies.
Clay was more interested in getting to the right
answer than in being right. And for him, getting
to the right answer started with asking the right
questions. For instance: What does the ascendance
of a new generation of straight-to-consumer dis-
rupters tell us about how innovation is evolving?
What are the sources of disruption that every com-
pany must monitor? Is disruption always the right
strategy — or not? And why have companies not
gotten better at solving the innovator’s dilemma
two decades after Clay first helped us understand
how disruption occurs?
We tackle these questions — and many more —
in this issue, dedicated to the memory of the
original disrupter, Clayton Christensen.

Karen Dillon // @kardillon
Guest Editor
MIT Sloan Management Review

2 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW SPRING 2020
SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU

MITSloanManagement Review

SPRING 2020 • VOLUME 61 • NUMBER 3

Editor’s note: Some articles in this issue were originally published online. They have been adapted for print.

21

46

71

DISRUPTION 2020

SCOUTING THE HORIZON

21 Disruption 2020:
An Interview With
Clayton M. Christensen
With technology and capital rapidly increasing the
pace of innovation, Christensen’s thinking is more rele-
vant today than ever. What do we know now about
the power of disruption and where it’s taking us?

CLAYTON M. CHRISTENSEN,
INTERVIEWED BY KAREN DILLON

COMPETING ON QUALITY

28 The New Disrupters
By entering the market with products and
services that are every bit as good as those
offered by legacy companies, a new breed of
disrupters is making it harder than ever for
traditional businesses to compete.

BY RITA GUNTHER MCGRATH

CREATING AND CAPTURING VALUE

34 From Disruption to
Collision: The New
Competitive Dynamics
In the age of AI, traditional businesses across
the economy are being attacked by highly
scalable data-driven companies whose operating
models leverage network effects to deliver value.

BY MARCO IANSITI AND KARIM R. LAKHANI

PLANNING YOUR STRATEGY
40 To Disrupt or
Not to Disrupt?
Disruption isn’t always the right strategy
for startups. It’s a choice.

BY JOSHUA GANS

NAVIGATING THE SHARING ECONOMY
46 The Future of Platforms
Platforms power some of the world’s most valuable
companies, but it will get harder and harder to
capture and monetize their disruptive potential.

BY MICHAEL A. CUSUMANO, DAVID B. YOFFIE,
AND ANNABELLE GAWER

LEADING WITHOUT BLINDERS
56 How Leaders Delude
Themselves About Disruption
We’ve known for decades what causes disruption.
So why are companies still allowing themselves to
be vulnerable? The answer starts at the top.

BY SCOTT D. ANTHONY AND MICHAEL PUTZ

PICKING UP SIGNALS
65 The 11 Sources of
Disruption Every Company
Must Monitor
Think you’re aware of the forces that might disrupt
your company? Your lens may be far too narrow.

BY AMY WEBB

DOING BUSINESS WITH INTEGRITY
71 A Crisis of Ethics in
Technology Innovation
As businesses work to delight consumers,
they must also protect the public trust.

BY MAX WESSEL AND NICOLE HELMER

FOCUSING ON THE CUSTOMER
77 The Experience Disrupters
To compete in 2020, it’s not good enough to have a
disruptive product. Your customer experience also
needs to shine.

BY BRIAN HALLIGAN

SPRING 2020 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW 3
SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU

FRONTIERS
EXPLORING THE DIGITAL FUTURE OF MANAGEMENT

IN EVERY ISSUE

85 Executive Briefings
Summaries of feature articles in this issue.

83 SPARK TEAM
CREATIVITY BY
EMBRACING
UNCERTAINTY

BY AITHAN SHAPIRA

88 STOP RUSHING
IN WITH ADVICE

BY MICHAEL BUNGAY STANIER

COLUMNS

8

FOUR SKILLS TOMORROW’S INNOVATION
WORKFORCE WILL NEED
The young digerati will lead innovation, but they’ll also
need to develop business awareness, an entrepreneurial
attitude, bottom-line focus, and ethical intelligence.

BY TUCKER J. MARION, SEBASTIAN K. FIXSON, AND GREG BROWN

13
EDUCATION, DISRUPTED
Confronting sizable skills gaps, companies have
stopped waiting for higher education to meet
their rapidly shifting competitive needs.

BY MICHAEL B. HORN

17
BETTING BIG ON EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT
At Amazon, it makes business sense to help people grow —
even if they leave as a result.

ARDINE WILLIAMS, INTERVIEWED BY MIT SMR

83

7

BUILDING
THE FUTURE
WORKFORCE

I don’t have an opinion on whether a
particular company is vulnerable to
disruption or not — but the theory does.
That’s why it’s such a powerful tool.”

— CLAYTON M. CHRISTENSEN, PAGE 21

4 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW SPRING 2020
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MIT Sloan Management Review
leads the discourse among academic
researchers, business executives,
and other influential thought leaders
about advances in management
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Editorial Advisory Board

Deborah Ancona
MIT Sloan School of Management

Julian Birkinshaw
London School of Business

James Champy

Henry Chesbrough
University of California, Berkeley

Michael A. Cusumano
MIT Sloan School of Management

Charles H. Fine
MIT Sloan School of Management

Stuart L. Hart
University of Vermont Grossman
School of Business

John Hauser
MIT Sloan School of Management

Arnoldo C. Hax
MIT Sloan School of Management

Donna L. Hoffman
George Washington University
School of Business

Alan Kantrow
The Governance Laboratory

Peter G.W. Keen
Keen Innovations

Karim R. Lakhani
Harvard Business School

Hau L. Lee
Stanford University Graduate School
of Business

Andrew Lo
MIT Sloan School of Management

Constantinos C. Markides
London Business School

Patricia Moody
Patricia E. Moody Inc.

Constance M. O’Hare
Beacon Advisors LLC

Edward B. Roberts
MIT Sloan School of Management

Jeanne W. Ross
MIT Sloan School of Management

Paul J.H. Schoemaker
Wharton School, University of
Pennsylvania

Michael Schrage
MIT Media Laboratory

Noel M. Tichy
University of Michigan School of
Business Administration

N. Venkatraman
Boston University Questrom
School of Business

Georg F. von Krogh
ETH Zurich

Eleanor Westney
Schulich School of Business,
York University

George S. Yip
Imperial College Business School

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