Clayton Christensen Quotes

Almost always great new ideas don't emerge from within a single person or function, but at the intersection of functions or people that have never met before.

Breaking an old business model is always going to require leaders to follow their instinct. There will always be persuasive reasons not to take a risk. But if you only do what worked in the past, you will wake up one day and find that you’ve been passed by.

My conclusion: Management is the most noble of professions if it's practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team.

I've concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn't dollars, but the individual people whose lives I've touched. I think that's the way it will work for us all. Don't worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people.

You can't find returns in investments you haven't made.

What you need is a fundamental humility - the belief that you can learn from anyone.

The reason why it is so difficult for existing firms to capitalize on disruptive innovations is that their processes and their business model that make them good at the existing business actually make them bad at competing for the disruption. 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.

The biggest mistake is an over-reliance on data. Managers will say if there are no data they can take no action. However, data only exist about the past. By the time data become conclusive, it is too late to take actions based on those conclusions.

Decide what you stand for. And then stand for it all the time.

Businesses want to think in terms of categories. Consumers want us to think in terms of their needs.

An innovation will get traction only if it helps people get something that they're already doing in their lives done better.

The best strategy is a balance between having a deliberate one, and a flexible, or emergent strategy.

If you study the root causes of business disasters, over and over you'll find this predisposition toward endeavors that offer immediate gratification.

How can you make sense of the future when you only have data about the past?

Disruptive innovations create jobs, efficiency innovations destroy them.

Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success.

Disruptive technology is a theory. It says this will happen and this is why; it's a statement of cause and effect. In our teaching we have so exalted the virtues of data-driven decision making that in many ways we condemn managers only to be able to take action after the data is clear and the game is over. In many ways a good theory is more accurate than data. It allows you to see into the future more clearly.

Steve Jobs and Apple taught us that profit is not the ultimate goal, but rather a consequence of something greater.

Motivation is the catalyzing ingredient for every successful innovation. The same is true for learning.

The only useful information about the market will be what I create through expeditions into the market, through testing and probing, trial and error, by selling real products to real people who pay real money.

The path I am trying so hard to follow is in fact the one that God my Father and His Son Jesus Christ want me to pursue. It has brought me deep happiness.

You can talk all you want about having a clear purpose and strategy for your life, but ultimately this means nothing if you are not investing the resources you have in a way that is consistent with your strategy. In the end, a strategy is nothing but good intentions unless it's effectively implemented.

Core competence, as it is used by many managers, is a dangerously inward-looking notion. Competitiveness is far more about doing what customers value than doing what you think you're good at.

...it's easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time.

When I have my interview with my God, our conversation will focus on the individuals whose self-esteem I was able to strengthen, whose faith I was able to reinforce, and whose discomfort I was able to assuage—a doer of good, regardless of what assignment I had. These are the metrics of that matter in measuring my life. This realization, which occurred nearly fifteen years ago, guided me every day to seek opportunities to help people in ways tailored to their individual circumstances. My happiness and my sense of worth has been immeasurably improved as a result.