The_Innovators_Dilemma__Clayton
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The sum of these studies is that while disruptive technology can change the dynamics of industries with
widely varying characteristics, the drivers of success or failure when confronted by such technology are
consistent across industries.
Chapter 10 shows how these principles can be used by illustrating how managers might apply them in a
case study of a particularly vexing technology—the electric vehicle. Chapter 11 then reviews the
principal findings of the book.
NOTES
1. The notion that we exercise power most effectively when we understand the physical and
psychological laws that define the way the world works and then position or align ourselves in
harmony with those laws, is of course not new to this book. At a light-hearted level, Stanford
Professor Robert Burgelman, whose work is extensively cited in ths book, once dropped his pen
onto the floor in a lecture. He muttered as he stooped to pick it up, “I hate gravity.” Then, as he
walked to the blackboard to continue his line of thought, he added, “But do you know what?
Gravity doesn’t care! It will always pull things down, and I may as well plan on it.”
At a more serious level, the desirability of aligning our actions with the amore powerful laws of nature,
society, and psychology, in order to lead a productive life, is a central theme in many works,
particularly the ancient Chinese classic, Tao te Ching.
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