Seeing What's Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change

I have read all three books Professor Christiansen's series and remain extremely impressed with the approach taken to understand on a very fundamental level how industries change. This final book in the series is tremendous and is the most practical of the three. I understand that no one knows exactly what will happen in the future of any industry, but the theories presented by Christiansen provide a cogent framework from which to make reasonable predictions.There are many industries that would greatly benefit from understanding and implementing these principles. This is a must read for any trend watcher in any business environment. I would imagine that there are many persons in each industry that are now aware of these theories and are either watching for signs of disruption or are planning and creating disruptions in their respective fields. If I were in a particular business environment, I would want to make sure that I am aware of the trends and positioning my company to be able to respond to them. Seeing What's Next is the perfect book to start that thought process.

Recibi una copia nueva que cuenta con la firma de Clayton Christensen, excelente!!!

"Seeing what's next" is not one of those books that predict the future and try to come up with what will arrive in the next x years ahead. Instead, it describes the steps, theories and tools you can use in order to get ahead of the curve about what the next disruptive innovations will be, where they will come from and whether or not they'll have a chance to survive. Building on the theories explained in "The Innovator's Dilemma" (Christensen's first book) and "The Innovator's Solution (the sequel that followed), this book presents the results and resume of the most important points in those books and develops the theory and questions to ask to predict where the next big change (disruption) will happen. If you have read the two books mentioned, this one will allow you to consolidate the concepts and ideas but I don't think it will add too much new content. If you haven't read them (as it was my case) you'll find yourself a bit lost sometimes at the begining of the book, but thanks to the examples later on and a very good Summary chapter at the end, I think I won't read those now.The book is divided in two parts:- Chapters 1 to 4 describe how to analyze the current status of an industry looking for signals of a new disruption (big change/leap forward) that might occur. It also shows how to evaluate the current players and how they could react to it, and finally how strategic decisions and external market conditions affect those disruptions- Chapters 5 to 10 provide examples of applying the above theories and methods to different industries: healthcare, education, aviation, telecommunication, etcI enjoyed reading this book quite a lot and learn also quite many things that, even though the book was written in 2004, I think are prefectly applicable today. I read (and re-read) the first part as I didn't read the previous two books from this author. After understanding the ideas, I went to the second part but only reading the chapters about the industries I care the most: Telecommunication and Semiconductors. If at some point I'm faced with projects or work on one of the others, I'll make sure I have this book at hand, as it provides insights and tools to evaluate the current state and even have some ground to jump into the near future. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in how companies innovate and develop their products and services and why then sometimes disruptive ideas come and become a huge success. It will also make you think about your customers and how they behave the way they do when confronting innovation.

Reading Christensen's How Will You Measure Your Life?, inspired me to re-look at his earlier "Seeing What's Next" (written with different co-authors).The former book helps one consider ways innovation theories (e.g. new ways of conceiving services such as 'Uber' and 'Lyft' disrupted the personal transportation industry) can be brought to bear in one's personal life (see my review of that work), while the later remains an indispensible reference for these theories and their application.Agreeing with other reviewers that there are many positive aspects to this book, the Introduction, Conclusion (What's Next?), Appendix (Summary of Key Concepts), and Glossary are particularly helpful as quick guides and "job aides."For instance, the Introduction explains the core theories of innovation, e.g. why certain actions, such as disruptive innovations, lead to certain results. It also emphasizes the benefits of good theory in looking into the future in the face of conclusive business data only about the past (see such examples as in my review of Eric Topol's The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care).The Conclusion recaps the book providing a figure that concisely compiles the "questions in the analytical process" including those regarding "signals of change," "competitive battles," and "strategic choices." Another figure offers "lessons" from theory based analyses of the education, aviation, semiconductor, health care, and telecommunication industries----a jumping off point to other Christensen books on particular sectors, e.g. education ("Disrupting Class") and health care ("Innovators Prescription").In the Appendix, there are figures and text that summarize "the theory building process," theories of "disruptive innovation," "resources/processes/values," "jobs to be done," "value chain evolution," "schools of experience," and "emergent strategy." Similar charts and brief descriptions also recount "sustaining innovation classification," "discovery driven planning," and "motivation/ability" frameworks. The Glossary conveys definitions of these and other related terms.This book is a key to Disruptive Innovation theory and a roadmap to be consulted in its use.

I enjoyed every chapter.It would be Interesting to see some of the ideas in this book applied to the social media and mobile revolution.I would recommend this book to anyone planning on starting something big in the African market. This a great example of a market that is ripe for disruption.