Home / Quotes / Quote by Clayton Christensen

Quote by Clayton Christensen

“If you ask the average guy on the street to name five companies that have truly transformed themselves over the few decades, Hewlett-Packard would be on everybody's list. You'd also put on this list GE and Johnson & Johnson.”

Quote by Clayton Christensen

Author

Clayton Christensen

Clayton M. Christensen is an esteemed professor known for his contributions to the fields of business management and innovation. Born on April 6, 1952, he is a professor at Harvard Business School and the author of 'The Innovator's Dilemma'. more

You May Also Like

“The transformation at the corporate level was achieved by selling off business units in old markets and by creating new business units to pursue the new opportunities. But the individual business units themselves within those transformed corporations were almost inert to change.”

Opportunity Individual Levels Creating Transformation Selling Pursue Corporate Corporations Transformed Units New Opportunity New Business

Author:Clayton Christensen

“It's like in biological evolution: The population will evolve, even though individuals can't. The same thing happens in the corporate world: The population of business units within corporations evolves, even though individual business units can't. That's because the capabilities of business units reside in their processes and their values, and by their very nature, processes and values are inflexible and meant not to change.”

World Happens Values Individual Process Evolution Population Things Happen Evolve Corporate Corporations Capability Units Corporate World Biological Evolution

Author:Clayton Christensen

“How could Digital's collapse be so precipitous? It's because, in many ways, financial performance data is misleading. As you move up to the top of the market, you're getting rid of the less profitable products at the low end and adding business with more attractive margins at the high end. The rate of unit volume growth might be tapering off as you pursue these smaller markets, but your margins actually look better. So Wall Street rewards your stock price until you hit the ceiling.”

“You can invest to create the new growth business while the core business is still growing, because new business units don't need to get big fast. But when the core business stops growing, investing to create new growth businesses becomes impossible.”

Needs Stills Bigs Growth Growing Impossible Investing Core Units New Business New Growth

Author:Clayton Christensen

“To prop up the stock price, managers have to turn down the screws on everybody. That forces them to cancel all the projects that would lead to future growth in order to drop money to the bottom line. This is HP's dilemma today. Once a company's growth has stopped, the game as we have known it is over. It's a scary thing.”

Today Order Turns Games Force Growth Lines Company Known Projects Bottom Scary Managers Over It Screws Bottom Line Dilemma Props Scary Things Stock Price Future Growth

Author:Clayton Christensen

“But actually theory is very practical. Gravity is a theory, for example. It allows you to predict that if you step off a cliff you will fall; you don't have to collect data on that.”

Ifs Fall Steps Example Theory Practicals Data Gravity Cliffs

Author:Clayton Christensen

“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.”

“If you just look at the data, you are led to believe that things are getting better, rather than worse. That's why the fall is really precipitous, once you hit the ceiling.”

Ifs Believe Looks Fall Data Get Better Ceilings Things Are Getting Better

Author:Clayton Christensen

“When the functionality of a product or service overshoots what customers can use, it changes the way companies have to compete. When the product isn't yet good enough, the way you compete is by making better products. In order to make better products, the architecture of the product has to be interdependent and proprietary in character.”

Way Enough Character Use Order Company Products Customers Architecture Good Enough Functionality

Author:Clayton Christensen

“Regulatory fiat cannot create a market at a technologically interdependent interface. And by the same token, regulation and so-called monopoly power rarely prevail at modular interfaces between stages of value-added technology.”

Values Technology Stage Regulation Monopoly Tokens Interfaces Monopoly Power

Author:Clayton Christensen