The Innovation Show The Innovation Show

We covered the Innovator’s Dilemma with Matthew Christensen in the first part of this series, but we did not cover Chapter 7 of the Innovator’s Dilemma,that chapter Is entitled “Discovering New and Emerging Markets” It opens as follows:
“Markets that do not exist cannot be analyzed: Suppliers and customers must discover them together. Not only are the market applications for disruptive technologies unknown at the time of their development, they are unknowable. The strategies and plans that managers formulate for confronting disruptive technological change, therefore, should be plans for learning and discovery rather than plans for execution. This is a crucial point to understand because managers who believe they know a market’s future will plan and invest very differently from those who recognize the uncertainties of a developing market.”
You may know those to be the words of Clayton Christensen, but what you may not know is that this concept of discovery-driven growth stems from the work of a very special friend of the Innovation Show, it is an immense pleasure to welcome Rita McGrath.
Topics Covered on this episode: 
00:00:00 - Intro and Sponsor
00:02:28 Rita McGrath Welcome
00:04:15 Clayton Christensen Relationship
00:07:35 Discovery-Driven Planning
00:12:05 Client Example of Too Attached to Outcome
00:13:23 Redefining Failure: Failing Fast is Not Always Failing
00:14:04 Example of Varo Bank 
00:18:51 KittyHawk Example
00:20:54 The Role of Luck
00:24:51 Honda SuperCub and NonConsumers
00:27:50 Jobs To Be Done and The McLean Hamburger
00:29:51 Origins of Discovery-Driven Planning
00:31:41 Most Mutations in Nature Fail, as do most ideas
00:32:47 Origins of Innovation Thinking From Schumpeter to Today
00:34:08 Discovery-Driven Planning Overview in a Nutshell
00:37:55 Disasters: EuroDisney
00:42:09 Disasters: PolaVision
00:43:15 Organisational Capabilities, Arenas and Kao
00:46:23 Selling an Idea to a CFO/Incumbent Gatekeeper 
00:51:06 UPM Example: United Paper Mills Example
00:55:00 R.A.C.E.
Find Rita here:
https://www.ritamcgrath.com/
Find Valize here:
https://www.valize.com/
 

In part 2 of our series to honour the work, life and theories of Clayton Christensen, Joseph Bower unpacks that famous HBR article, "Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave" This article spawned the book, "The Innovator's Dilemma" Joe Bower s the father of "Resource Allocation theory" included in his 1970 groundbreaking book, Managing the Resource Allocation Process. He has been a leader in general management at Harvard Business School for over five decades where he is the Donald K. David Professor Emeritus. He was Clayton Christensen’s doctoral thesis adviser and worked with Clay to develop and stress-test his theories.
Just some of the topics covered in this episode: 
00:00:00 Intro 00:01:46 Managing Resource Allocation 00:02:57 Dissertation Supervisor for Clayton Christensen 00:04:11 Traits of Great Leaders 00:06:19 Resource Allocation 00:08:44 Group Decision Making 00:26:56 The Human Element of Change 00:46:46 Advice for Changemakers and Leaders 00:51:25 Getting People to Change Their Mind 00:56:29 Final Thoughts on Clayton Christensen  

The logical, competent decisions of management that are critical to the success of their companies are also the reasons why they lose their positions of leadership.” How can executives simultaneously do what is right for the near-term health of their established businesses while focusing adequate resources on the disruptive technologies that ultimately could lead to their downfall? The Innovator's Dilemma!!!
Clayton Christensen fathered the “theory of disruptive innovation”, but he also fathered wonderful people who have built on his pioneering work.  We are honoured to be joined by one such pioneer. The apple does not fall far from the tree; he is offspring in mind and body and spirit we welcome Co-Founder, CEO, and Managing Partner of Rose Park Advisors, Matt Christensen, welcome to the show.

Today’s book takes a fresh perspective on what it takes for people to flourish in the workplace. Our guest suggests that when we focus on neurodiversity, we respect people’s deeper drives and motivations, and then companies will naturally achieve better results as a side effect. One thing we must keep in mind is that neurosignatures shouldn’t be thought of as static.
Our neurosignatures change throughout the day. When I get out of bed in the morning, my testosterone neurosignature is very high. But by evening, it’s almost nonexistent. I don’t want to conquer my goals at eight at night; I want to watch Netflix and chill.
We welcome back a great friend of the show, Friederike Fabritius, a multiple-time guest with her WSJ best seller: The Brain-Friendly Workplace.
Find Friederike here: https://friederikefabritius.com

The story of language is the story of humanity; the new understanding of language that our guests outline in this book radically revises our conception of ourselves. In today’s book, our guests outline a revolutionary perspective that overhauls almost everything we thought we knew about language.
We will hear how the game of charades reveals deep insights into how language works. We’ll hear how our brain can improvise linguistic ‘moves’ at an astonishingly rapid rate. We’ll hear how languages are in continual flux, how people without a common tongue can rapidly create a language from scratch, and why it’s likely that language has been independently reinvented countless times. We will realise how the creation of language is not only essential but also changes the nature of evolution. It’s a pleasure to welcome the authors of "The Language Game- How Improvisation Created Language and Changed the World", Nick Chater and Morten H. Christiansen.
Find Nick here:
https://www.wbs.ac.uk/about/person/nick-chater/
https://twitter.com/nickjchater
Find Morten here:
https://csl-lab.psych.cornell.edu
https://twitter.com/mh_christiansen
 

Senior leaders often want to know how they can build an environment to allow innovation to thrive. In order to do that, they first need to realise that business activities live on an uncertainty continuum - that we call the Explore-Exploit Continuum - and that creating new growth engines and managing existing business(es) are on opposite ends of this continuum. A better understanding of the Explore-Exploit Continuum will help executives and innovation teams put in place the right investment and management processes, the required skill set and culture to explore new business ideas as successfully as they exploit current businesses.