Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Named one of 100 Leadership & Success Books to Read in a Lifetime by Amazon Editors

A Wall Street Journal and Businessweek bestseller . Named by Fast Company as one of the most influential leadership books in its Leadership Hall of Fame. An innovation classic. From Steve Jobs to Jeff Bezos, Clay Christensen's work continues to underpin today's most innovative leaders and organizations.

The bestselling classic on disruptive innovation, by renowned author Clayton M. Christensen.

His work is cited by the world's best-known thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell. In this classic bestseller--one of the most influential business books of all time--innovation expert Clayton Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right--yet still lose market leadership.

Christensen explains why most companies miss out on new waves of innovation. No matter the industry, he says, a successful company with established products will get pushed aside unless managers know how and when to abandon traditional business practices.

Offering both successes and failures from leading companies as a guide, The Innovator's Dilemma gives you a set of rules for capitalizing on the phenomenon of disruptive innovation.

Sharp, cogent, and provocative--and consistently noted as one of the most valuable business ideas of all time-- The Innovator's Dilemma is the book no manager, leader, or entrepreneur should be without.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• In Gratitude (p. vii)
• Preface (p. ix)
• Introduction (p. xiii)
• Part 1 Why Great Companies Can Fail (p. 1)
• 1 How Can Great Firms Fail? Insights from the Hard Disk Drive Industry (p. 3)
• 2 Value Networks and the Impetus to Innovate (p. 29)
• 3 Disruptive Technological Change in the Mechanical Excavator Industry (p. 61)
• 4 What Goes Up, Can't Go Down (p. 77)
• Part 2 Managing Disruptive Technological Change (p. 97)
• 5 Give Responsibility for Disruptive Technologies to Organizations Whose Customers Need Them (p. 101)
• 6 Match the Size of the Organization to the Size of the Market (p. 121)
• 7 Discovering New and Emerging Markets (p. 143)
• 8 How to Appraise Your Organization's Capabilities and Disabilities (p. 161)
• 9 Performance Provided, Market Demand, and the Product Life Cycle (p. 183)
• 10 Managing Disruptive Technological Change: A Case Study (p. 205)
• 11 The Dilemmas of Innovation: A Summary (p. 225)
• The Innovator's Dilemma Book Group Guide (p. 231)
• Index (p. 239)
• About the Author (p. 255)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Booklist Review

The author, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, asks why some well-managed companies that stay on top of new technology and practice quality customer service can still falter. His own research brought a surprising answer to that question. Christensen suggests that by placing too great an emphasis on satisfying customers' current needs, companies fail to adapt or adopt new technology that will meet customers' unstated or future needs, and he argues that such companies will eventually fall behind. Christensen calls this phenomenon "disruptive technology" and demonstrates its effects in industries as diverse as the manufacture of hard-disk drives and mass retailing. He goes on to offer solutions by providing strategies for anticipating changes in markets. This book is another in the publisher's Management of Innovation and Change series. --David Rouse