The meaning of Disruptive Innovation (not yet fully understood) of “Job to be done” (service performed by the Product for the Customer) derives from the fact that the creator of the Theory, Clayton Christensen, was firmly convinced that man’s purpose is to help the next (he was also a Missionary).
Christensen in fact reintroduces the concept of business as a purpose to create something that can improve the Customer to improve his existence.
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If you follow the development of the Disruptive Innovation Theory by C. Christensen, it is evident that
the meaning of Disruptive Innovation is not
– as most people think today –
that of “Disruptive Technology”.
That is, in the current phase of market evolution, the technologies themselves do not bring any competitive advantage.
Christensen has in fact clarified that
the characteristic of the product
that offers the competitive advantage
is the Job to be done
Christensen has reached this conclusion by transforming its original concept of Disruptive Innovation <see The misconception about Disruptive Innovation: the testimony of C. Christensen>
Refer to Disruptive Innovation
citing the book “The Innovator’s Dilemma”
is therefore a serious mistake
In reality the “mature” version of the Theory is found in C. Christensen’s book “Competing Against Luck”.
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The new meaning of Disruptive Innovation – “Job to be done” – indicates a service that the Product performs for the Customer (it is as if the Customer “hired” someone to do a job).
It is important to understand that
this “Job do be done”
not only solves specific practical Customer problems,
but more generally improves the quality of life of him.
An example brought by Christensen is the Intuit software: a program “to pay taxes” efficiently, but which is actually able to remove the stress of that annual operation from the Customer.
Another example, more significant, is the OnStar, a service embedded in the Cars of General Motor: a service that helps the Customer (by telephone) not only for the problems of car operation, but more generally in the difficulties encountered when traveling with the car. Thus providing a greater sense of security to the owners of the General Motors car.
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Designing Products That Do the Job
It is therefore not the question of making a product easier to use, with better performance, cheaper, etc … These characteristics must be in the Product; but if you want to create a winning product in the current market, you need to add something else, which is the true core value of the business today: the service for the customer incorporated in the product.
Today, creating such a product is possible thanks to the Smartness of the Products. And to their connectivity that extends this Smartness.
<see How “revolutionary” Disruptive Innovation is: a new concept of Smartness and Connected>
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The problem remains that of understanding, in their many nuances, what are the needs to be satisfied (today the needs of the Customers are not only complex, but, as the rest of the Society is, them are constantly evolving). <see Hidden Demand, Evolving Needs (the virtuous circle of innovation)>
The only way to fully understand
the needs of the Customer
is to be a Customer.
This is in fact the condition of successful Startuppers (who found themselves in the specific situation of need of their Customers – either directly, or for an empathic perception of the people they attend).
Today the discovery of the needs to be met is facilitated by the fact that the Customers have tools (such as the web) available to develop self-satisfaction niches for their needs (also called non-consumption niches). <see in Table for Assessing Disruptive Innovation >
This empathy is nothing but the original spirit of the entrepreneur, now replaced by managers. see The Entrepreneur’s DNA>
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In the new dimension, business passes from profit driven by a customer driven need (profit, as Adam Smith noted when observing the original market, is nothing more than a consequence of this purpose).
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With the new definition of Disruptive innovation Christensen (Job to be done):
1) recovers the original value of the product: the effectiveness of the product for the customer (a value that is lost in decades of “creative” Marketing, replaced by gimmicks for impulse buying, an emotional level). <see Business problems: the difference between original and current marketing>
2) this concept evolves, thanks:
– the possibilities offered today by product Smartness, IoT and the integration of products into an ecosystem. This allows you to create a product that performs a service for the customer (Job to be done).
– to the ICT that has integrated the Customer in the development of its product. <see The problems of the current Market strategies: towards a crowd participated Marketing >
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Note the implications of the idea of a Disruptive Innovation described above:
you no longer develop a “Product”,
but a solution
(we should talk about Offer).
Indeed:
● The product becomes a real “solution” of customer problems: that is, it becomes important to bring the design focus on the solution and not on the product itself.
● but even better, the Product-solution can be defined more generally as an Offer, since it is integrated into an ecosystem made not only of the Company’s products, and of competitors’ products, and also by “non-consumption” solutions
<see The need to see the whole picture: integration of products into an ecosystem >
For an effective assessment of the quality of a product's innovation, the "TrendInsights's Guidelines to Disruptive Innovation" was developed, which offers:
1) an essential description of the meaning and methods of Disruptive innovation, and
2) a methodology for those who want to start a Disruptive Innovation business.
3) a Table summarizing the quality of the Disruptive Innovation for an assessment of business innovation capacity (usable both for developing a new Business and for analyzing Business already in progress).
<see "TrendInsights's Guidelines to Disruptive Innovation" >
self BIBLIO GUDE+IN PRACTICE
The topics above are developed in the Articles of the TrendInsignts site. And in particular in the Collection of Articles (see index below):
► Guidelines for Disrutpive Innovation; and
► Disruptive innovation in practice.
DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION IN PRACTICE (Collection of Articles)
1. WHAT ARE THE CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION? <see>
Chapters:
● The redefinition of the term Disruptive by its "inventor"
The essence of Disruptive Innovation it's not disruption (disorder, destruction); but it is THE "USEFUL VALUE" THAT THE PRODUCT DEVELOPES FOR THE CUSTOMER
● The two opposite meanings of the term Disruptive
Today the term disruptive indicates negative effects of disorder, destruction. But Disruptive Innovation is a great benefit for Business and Customers
● The causes of the current disruption
The paradox of Disruption is that it is the Incumbents who created it, depriving the market of the qualities needed to satisfy the Demand
● The need to develop new Business Rules
In order to develop an innovation capable of satisfying the new Demand it is necessary to understand what the qualities required for this Demand are
● A hint to the qualities of Disruptive Innovation products
The differences between the qualities of the two forms of innovation are radical: traditional product qualities and deeper forms of gratification are recovered.
2. THE “RESISTANCE” TO INNOVATION <see>
Chapters:
Today we read (increasingly often) that Disruptive Innovation is not what Business really needs. But the validity of Disruptive Innovation is verifiable (primarily by analyzing the facts). Chapters:
● The verifiability of the disruptive innovation validity
● The two fundamental questions about the validity of Disruptive innovation
● The absence of Startups of breakthrough success of Sustaining innovation
● The media essence of the success of Sustaining innovation
● The "resistance" to innovation
3. THE CHARADE OF THE DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION <see>
Companies are prisoners of the same narrative with which they deal with customers.
The incumbents have created a cultural dimension of "abstractness" that allows Marketers a "persuasion through fiction" to purchase (which induces the Customer to purchase products that have little or no use for it).
And now the Incumbents themselves live in this "mental bubble" (of abstract ideas), for which they are convinced by the "experts" (Managers, Consultants, Professors, etc.) to follow ways of developing strategies that they are disconnected from actual reality (ie to purchase a "product" lacking in quality for them).
GUIDELINES FOR DISRUTPIVE INNOVATION (Collection of Articles)
A Guideline illustrating which are the Rules followed by the Disrutpive Inovation Business.
It contains a Table that illustrates the Keypoints of Disruptive innovation, so that we can easily evaluate the response of a Business to the Rules of the Disrutpive Innovation.
Articles:
1. Basic Q&A on Disruptive innovation <see>
Aimed at a clarification of the negative and positive keypoints of Disrutpive Innovation: ● what are the causes of the current crisis, and ● what Disruptive innovation actually is in its specific aspects.
► Why we cannot get out of the current market crisis? / Why you cannot work on causes of problems? ► Some causes of the failure to change ► The change: some characteristic / Why the need for a disruptive innovation?
2. WHAT IS and WHAT IS NOT Disruptive innovation <see>
Aimed at a clarification of what are the specific errors committed by the failing strategies. And what are key factors of the winning alternatives
► Considerations on models and roles of the new Business ► Overcoming the concept of Leader and follower ► Considerations on the form of innovation / The difference between the innovation models (sustaining/disruptive) ► The change of the business paradigm and mission / Purpose of business / Comparison between Disruptive and Sustaining Innovation: the case of “electric bikes”
3. Table for a assessments of Business innovation capacity <see>
SUMMARY TABLE OF KEYPOINTS OF THE TWO DIFFERENT FORMS OF INNOVATION (Disruptive / Sustaining), with which it is possibile TO ASSESS WHICH FORMS OF INNOVATION ARE PRESENT IN EVERY BUSINESS.
