The Disruptive Voice
Clay Christensen's Forum for Growth and Innovation at the Harvard Business
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The Disruptive Voice explores the theories of Disruptive Innovation across a broad set of industries and circumstances with academics, researchers, and practitioners who have been inspired and taught by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton M. Christensen, who was one of the world’s top experts on growth and innovation.
For more information, email fgi@hbs.edu.
BSSE = Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise, Professor Clayton M. Christensen's signature course at the Harvard Business School and a breeding ground for many of the ideas shared in this podcast.
Available episodes
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Mar 14, 2023
106. Reimagining Financial Advice For The Modern World: A Conversation with Anders Jones
Currently, over 75% of American households don’t have access to high quality, affordable, and unbiased financial advice. Anders Jones co-founded Facet in order to make these financial planning services available to a large population of people who don't qualify to receive them under existing incumbent business models. In other words, Facet is a prime example of a new market disruption, with the company largely competing against the non-consumption of financial advice. Taking this approach, however, wasn’t how the Facet story began when it initially entered the market, which exemplifies the emergent strategy utilized by the company that allowed for Facet’s pivot to its current strategy. In this conversation, hosted by Chris Calder, Anders reflects on how he’s using the frameworks to build and scale his enterprise, including the enabling technology that, paired with Facet’s business model, allows the company to profitably serve customers who are uninteresting to incumbents in the space. The two also discuss where Anders intends to take Facet in the future, redefining financial planning and advice and working to more fully integrate wealth management into their customers’ daily lives. Listen to learn more about how Facet is creating a new market and also changing the discussion around what it means to work with a financial advisor - a great example of Clay's theories in action!
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Feb 21, 2023
105. Here Be Dragons: A Conversation with Aidan McCullen
In his book, Undisruptable: A Mindset of Permanent Reinvention for Individuals, Organizations, and Life, Aidan McCullen writes about how, centuries ago, sailors would set out to sea with maps labelled with the Latin words hic sun dracones - here be dragons - which meant that they didn't know much - if anything - about the uncharted waters and unexplored lands that awaited them. In today's volatile and uncertain world, there are parallels to be drawn between the odysseys of past and present. There are also strategies that can be employed, both by corporations and by individuals, to thrive amidst challenging circumstances, and they center on the intentional development of a mindset of permanent reinvention. Aidan himself exemplifies this mindset, having built capabilities as a professional rugby player, a digital media specialist, an innovation and change consultant, a professor at Trinity College Dublin, and host of The Innovation Show podcast, where he's in the midst of a three month series dedicated to the life, work, and theories of Clayton Christensen. In this Disruptive Voice episode, he joins Katie Zandbergen to discuss the experience of putting the series together, including not only re-reading all of Clay's books but also having in-depth conversations with his co-authors; the necessity of building capabilities before we need them; lessons we can learn from immortal jellyfish; insights gleaned from making the time to read eclectically; finding assets in ashes; and, above all, the importance of facing the dragons in our lives and of always becoming - the concept of permanent reinvention.
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Jan 31, 2023
104. The Innovator's Dilemma: A Conversation with Matt Christensen
In the introduction of The Innovator's Dilemma, first published in 1997, Clayton Christensen wrote that the book "is about well-managed companies that have their competitive antennae up, listen astutely to their customers, invest aggressively in new technologies, and yet still lose market dominance." Years later, the dilemma is as relevant and as challenging as ever. In this episode of The Disruptive Voice, host and guest take a fascinating and deep dive into the book - and they do so as the first in a series of episodes on The Innovation Show that are dedicated to the life, work, and theories of Clayton Christensen. Specifically, host of The Innovation Show, Aidan McCullen, has kindly supported the re-release of his inspiring conversation with Clay's son, CEO & Managing Partner at Rose Park Advisors, Matt Christensen. Drawing on insights from Disruption Theory, along with a number of other theories developed by Clay and his collaborators over the years, listen to learn more about how, in Aidan's words, executives can simultaneously do what's right for the near-term health of their established businesses while also focusing adequate resources on the innovations that could ultimately lead to their downfalls - The Innovator’s Dilemma!
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Jan 10, 2023
103. Unlocking Opportunities Through The Application of Jobs Theory: A Conversation with Alasdair Trotter
Jobs Theory, when correctly applied, has the potential to be a huge unlock for organizations that have yet to realize the full value from their agile transformations. In order to benefit from the full potential of the Jobs To Be Done framework, a systems lens is required in its application. In this episode, Innosight’s Alasdair Trotter joins host Katie Zandbergen to discuss the challenges and opportunities that arise when trying to build more customer-centric and agile organizations. The conversation covers many of the ways in which Jobs Theory can be used to strengthen different aspects of the enterprise operating model, from strategy development to modern product and portfolio management. The discussion also includes a variety of insights about how Jobs Theory can bring more focus to enterprise strategy, overcome solution bias when developing and managing products, and improve the prioritization of strategy goals, as well as specific features. In short, listen to this insightful conversation to learn more about Jobs Theory as a powerful tool for addressing many of the challenges faced by modern product organizations!
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Dec 20, 2022
102. Customers Think In Trade-Offs: A Conversation with Pontus Siren and Shahriar Parvarandeh
In an earlier episode of The Disruptive Voice, Pontus Sirén discussed the Jobs methodology and how it relates to customer centricity. Companies exist to address customer problems, i.e. their Jobs To Be Done – and the first critical step for any innovator is to identify a good problem to solve. In this episode, Pontus’ Innosight colleague, Shari Parvarandeh, joins him to not only delve deeper into the importance of having a customer-centric approach but also to highlight that as Jobs arise in the lives of customers, they are compelled to make trade-off decisions. While the Jobs methodology enables companies to more deeply understand the progress that customers are trying to make, trade-off analysis enables them to systematically develop customer Jobs-centric solutions. Of further note is that, for companies, trade-offs are the linchpin of strategy, and they must constantly innovate to develop new and distinctive trade-off equations. Mastering this discipline is indispensable because, in the long run, companies succeed by continuously developing differentiated solutions with compelling trade-offs. Drawing on a number of real world examples to bring these ideas to life, this conversation sheds new light on how, through changing from a mindset of customer centricity to one of customers’ Jobs centricity, companies can innovate in more predictable and systematic ways.
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Nov 29, 2022
101. Learning To Build: A Conversation with Bob Moesta
This is a true story of one man, his four children, four mentors, and five skills. It began when Bob Moesta’s now-grown children moved out of the family home. Bob and his wife decided to clean things out a bit and during that process, in their attic, Bob came across eight hundred and forty-seven notebooks containing information on everything that he had worked on throughout his career! As he started to read through the notebooks it became clear that he had a great deal of information to share, wisdom gained over the years from his experiences working alongside his four mentors. Out of that attic discovery was born Bob's new book, "Learning To Build: The Five Bedrock Skills of Innovators and Entrepreneurs". The book is dedicated to his mentors as follows: "To my mentors: Drs. Clayton Christensen, Genichi Taguchi, W. Edwards Deming, and Willie Hobbs Moore, who shared their knowledge with me so that I could pay it forward." In this episode, Bob joins host Katie Zandbergen to discuss the five fundamental skills of innovators and entrepreneurs, gleaned from his decades working as an innovative builder, teacher, and entrepreneur. He also reflects on his friendship with Clay and the importance of mentors; the power of mindset change; projects that he's currently working on; and why people should "hire" his new book. Above all, Bob is focused on paying it forward and helping others to make progress in their lives. Listen to learn more!
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Nov 8, 2022
The Disruptive Voice's 100th Episode - Anomalies Wanted
Many listeners will know that Clay had a homemade “Anomalies Wanted” sign in his office at Harvard Business School – it was the backbone of his approach to research and theory building, as he worked to strengthen and refine his frameworks over the years. Many past guests on this podcast, when asked about what made Clay such a powerful thinker and teacher, responded saying that he was humble, that he was open to learning from everyone, and that he was always on the lookout for anomalies. Specifically, Clay viewed anomalies not as threats to the viability or applicability of his work but – quite the opposite – as presenting opportunities to learn and to improve the frameworks. In this episode, you'll hear from a number of people who were near and dear to Clay, all of whom share their reflections and insights on the theme of "Anomalies Wanted."
Thank you to the following individuals for their participation in this 100th episode project: Derek van Bever, Tom Bartman, Cliff Maxwell, Jon Palmer, Karen Dillon, Bob Moesta, Michael Horn, Max Wessel, Scott Anthony, and Ann Christensen. Thank you also to Tracy Kim Horn for getting this podcast off the ground back in 2016; to Craig McDonald for his work behind the scenes, overseeing the recording sessions; to our many wonderful guests and hosts; to our listeners, for tuning in and for sharing The Disruptive Voice with others; and, of course, to Clay, who continues to inspire us. We look forward to the next 100 episodes and to the discovery of those anomalies that we'll undoubtedly uncover along the way. If you have anomalies to share with us, please do reach out! Anomalies Wanted.
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Oct 18, 2022
99. Rebuilding Arts Audiences Through Customer-Centric Engagement: A Conversation with Ruth Hartt
When you receive a brochure in the mail from your local symphony or visit a website for your regional orchestra, what do you typically see? You’re very likely going to read flowery language about the beauty of the art and the skill of the artists, accompanied by photos of the conductor and the musicians on the stage. You probably won’t see the audience or how the experience might impact them. The arts sector, however, is in the midst of an audience crisis – and the time has come for arts organizations to stop ignoring their customers. In this episode, The Christensen Institute’s Ruth Hartt, who spent 17 years as an opera singer, joins host Katie Zandbergen to discuss how the Jobs To Be Done framework can be used as an effective tool by arts organizations, helping them to better engage with and grow their audiences. While many in the arts world have been operating under the comfortable assumption that they’ve nailed customer motivation, believing that “Help me to experience art performed at its highest level” is the primary motivator for ticket purchases, this approach fails to truly understand customers’ struggling moments and the reasons why they may hire an orchestral performance or an evening out at the opera. Armed with techniques and insights drawn from Jobs Theory, arts organizations can successfully shift from simply trying to push tickets to actually helping their customers and their communities through the arts-focused experiences that they provide. Listen to learn more about the opportunities for audience engagement and growth that await those arts administrators and marketers who recognize that the world revolves not around the performances they stage but rather around their customers and the progress they’re seeking to make in their lives.
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Sep 27, 2022
98. How Covid Crashed The System – And Where To Go From Here: A Conversation with Dr. David Nash
Founding Dean at Jefferson College of Population Health, Dr. David Nash, recently co-authored a book entitled "How Covid Crashed The System: A Guide To Fixing American Health Care", in which he and Charles Wohlforth draw parallels between flying a plane and delivering healthcare services. Leaning into the analogy, they liken the American healthcare system to an airplane crash – and they’re the post-crash investigators searching for the black box. The first half of the book describes to readers what was found in the black box of our healthcare system, while the second half presents the authors’ report about how we might fix this mess and get the plane back in the air. In this episode, David joins The Christensen Institute’s Ann Somers Hogg to discuss insights about the fault lines in American healthcare; how the pandemic shone a spotlight on the challenges that were already present long before March of 2020; and steps that we can take – including a more aggressive approach to tackling drivers of health, realigning incentives, and rethinking medical education – to address the multiple system failures in our current healthcare system. Listen to hear more about this opportunity to build a better, safer, and more equitable healthcare system in the United States.
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Sep 6, 2022
97. Fueling The Energy Transition: A Conversation With Frank Mycroft
One of the items you’ll find on Booster Co-Founder & CEO Frank Mycroft’s desk is a BSSE placemat, highlighting the frameworks that are covered in the course, which Frank took at Harvard Business School in 2012. Since its founding in 2015, Booster has built an energy-agnostic, modular, mobile network in which the company knows the energy demands of its customers, has the ability to procure the right energy products at the right time, and can leverage technology to ascertain the sustainability scores of these energy products – and all without needing to build complicated brick-and-mortar infrastructure that can make it impossible to get to the scale that alternative energy types and fuels need to be successful. In this episode, Frank joins Rose Park Advisors' Steve Geskos to discuss the story of Booster, from the struggling moments that were the seeds of its founding and innovative approach to energy delivery; to the transition to fleets; to today’s smart energy and data management initiatives; to Frank’s thoughts on Booster’s future upmarket moves and growth. Given that Frank has drawn on insights gleaned from the BSSE frameworks throughout his time building and scaling the business, Booster represents a great example of theory in action, in this case, as applied to the acceleration of adoption of greenhouse emissions-reducing products, such as renewable diesels, biofuels, electricity for EVs, and hydrogen. Listen to learn more about how Booster is helping its customers to navigate the mixed energy future!
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Aug 16, 2022
96. Seeing Around Corners: A Conversation with Rita McGrath
Clayton Christensen and Rita McGrath, one of the top management thinkers in the world, spent over two decades as both colleagues and friends. To this day, the concept of Discovery-Driven Planning, first widely introduced in a 1995 HBR article by Rita and Ian MacMillan, is taught in the Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise course at Harvard Business School. In this insightful conversation, Rita joins host Derek van Bever to discuss a number of topics highly relevant to management and strategy, including her work on inflection points and spotting the future before it arrives; the importance of testing fundamental assumptions (and why we so often fail to do so); barriers to innovation and growth; and Valize, the company that Rita founded to help organizations build lasting innovation capability as the basis for long-term shared prosperity. Listen to learn more!
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Jul 26, 2022
95. The Myths of Customer-Centricity: A Conversation with Scott Anthony, Claudia Pardo, and Pontus Siren
Earlier this summer, members of the Innosight team attended The Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit 2022 in Dublin, Ireland, where they joined industry leaders and spoke on the topic of Dispelling The Myths of Customer-Centricity. In this Disruptive Voice episode, Scott Anthony is joined by his colleagues, Claudia Pardo and Pontus Siren, to further delve into these myths. Through the lenses of the Jobs To Be Done framework, and drawing on a number of real-world examples, they consider how the application of Jobs Theory fundamentally changes how one thinks about innovation, strategy, and how best to set an organization on a path to success. Creating a customer-centric organization grounded in the idea of a Job To Be Done, however, remains a remarkably elusive target, despite many knowing that it’s important and that it provides clear benefits. In other words, being customer-centric may seem like a relatively simple and straightforward idea – but customer-centricity is often difficult…
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Jul 5, 2022
94. The What, The How, And The Jobs To Be Done Served By The Modern Classrooms Project – A Conversation with Kareem Farah
After college, Kareem Farah became a high school math teacher, teaching in the traditional way that most of us experienced as students, with the instructor standing in front of the classroom and lecturing on the information that students were supposed to learn. Much to his frustration and dismay, however, he soon discovered that there were some things that were shockingly wrong about traditional teaching and learning, namely that the instructional model was largely broken and kids in his classroom were not being well-served by it. As such, Kareem, along with fellow teacher, Rob Barnett, co-founded The Modern Classrooms Project – addressing their personal Job To Be Done of “Help me to replace this broken instructional model so that I can better serve my students.” In this episode, and through the lenses of the Jobs To Be Done framework, Kareem joins The Christensen Institute’s Tom Arnett to discuss the unique instructional delivery professional development model that they’re b…
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Jun 14, 2022
93. Bringing The Venture Studio Model to Southeast Asia: A Conversation with Nick Ongkowijaya
Southeast Asia is a vibrant, fast-growing, and diverse region of the world, home to vast opportunities, particularly for those supporting market-creating innovations. In this episode, Nick Ongkowijaya - an HBS and BSSE alumnus who also worked as an Associate at Innosight - joins host Katie Zandbergen to share the story of the new venture studio that he's building in Southeast Asia, called Gradient. Nick discusses the local context, including the drivers of non-consumption of entrepreneurial opportunities in the region; how he's building his venture studio to bring more would-be entrepreneurs into the startup ecosystem; the many BSSE frameworks that he regularly draws upon, both in building Gradient and in thinking about the venture studio's pipeline of companies; and the potential of market-creating innovations in Southeast Asia, particularly as they relate to solutions for the informal economy. Through the founding of Gradient - and drawing on the work being done there to foster entre…
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May 24, 2022
92. To Transform Lives, Transform Business Models: A Conversation with Ann Somers Hogg and Ann Christensen
In this episode, The Christensen Institute’s Ann Somers Hogg joins host Ann Christensen to, through the lens of the business model framework, discuss the significance of drivers of health to the future of the health care industry. In her newly-released paper, You Are What You Treat: Transforming The Health Care Business Model So Companies And People Thrive, Ann Somers provides a compass to guide leaders as they develop transition plans to succeed in a value-based future. The paper – and this conversation – addresses questions surrounding why our health care industry is where it is when it comes to tackling drivers of health; why business model transformation in the health care space is particularly challenging; what organizations employing innovative business models are doing to improve people’s health and overall quality of life; and what health care leaders can learn from these examples. Truly, a sharper focus on foundational business model structures in the health care space…
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May 3, 2022
91. Playing The Long Game: A Conversation With Dorie Clark
In her book, The Long Game: How To Be A Long-Term Thinker In A Short-Term World, Dorie Clark both reflects on the importance of having a longer-term strategy for our personal and professional lives, and provides readers with practical steps that can be taken to optimize for the future. In this episode, she joins hosts Derek van Bever and Katie Zandbergen to discuss the book and, in doing so, draws a number of parallels between her work and How Will You Measure Your Life. Together, they discuss a range of topics, including the value of long-term thinking, and why it’s often so challenging; discovering one’s purpose; managing uncertainty; finding balance between personal and professional goals; different types of networking; reorienting to see the bigger picture, and more! Truly, the power of making small, strategic changes today can be enormous in terms of impact on future success – it’s all about playing the long game.
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Apr 12, 2022
90. The Information-Action Paradox - And What To Do About It: A Conversation with Scott Anthony, Pontus Siren, and Utsav Bhatt
In the Harvard Business Review article, Persuade Your Company To Change Before It's Too Late, Innosight's Scott Anthony, Pontus Siren, and Utsav Bhatt describe how to break the information-action paradox and gain conviction to act before industry change gets ahead of your organization. In doing so, they draw on the story of King & Wood Mallesons (KWM), a law firm whose management team had the conviction required to successfully respond to disruptive change, taking steps to manage it without ripping apart the fabric of their organization. In this discussion, the three touch on a number of related topics, including navigating disruption in a rapidly changing world, the careful balance that leaders must strike when making consequential decisions, breaking the information-action paradox, and so much more. As they make clear in this episode, "Heroes don’t act when they're on burning platforms – they avoid ending up on them in the first place!" Listen to learn more.
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Mar 22, 2022
89. Expectations Investing & More: A Conversation with Michael Mauboussin and Matt Christensen
Michael Mauboussin and Matt Christensen’s paths first crossed over two decades ago, just before the first edition of Expectations Investing: Reading Stock Prices for Better Returns, co-authored by Michael and Alfred Rappaport, was published. In this episode, Michael and Matt discuss the revised and updated edition of the book, which came out in 2021 and reflects the many changes that have occurred in the business landscape over the last twenty years, along with a number of related topics. From capital markets to metrics; from team building to cognitive diversity; from the ramifications of game theory to consilience; and from disruption as a business model problem to the creation of long-term shareholder value, this thoughtful and engaging conversation is impressive in both its depth and breadth!
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Mar 1, 2022
88. Using Jobs To Be Done To Build Successful Brands: A Conversation with Taddy Hall
In the acknowledgments section of Competing Against Luck, co-author Taddy Hall wrote, “Twenty-four years ago, when I walked into the classroom for the first day of Clay’s class, I had no idea of the adventure that was about to begin. Over these many years, there has never been a conversation with Clay that didn’t leave me feeling a humbled sense of gratitude for his patience, wisdom, and kindness. Thank you, Clay.” In this episode of The Disruptive Voice, the adventure continues as Taddy joins host Shaye Roseman – formerly a Research Associate at The Forum for Growth & Innovation – to share stories from his time collaborating with Clay, how the Jobs To Be Done framework came to fruition, and the relationship between innovation and brands. In particular, Taddy recounts and reflects on a number of examples relating to how he, Shaye, and their fellow practitioners at Lippincott use Jobs Theory on a daily basis to not only design products and services but to actually build bran…
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Feb 8, 2022
87. The Disruptive Potential of Online Marketplaces: A Conversation with Scott Kominers and Cliff Maxwell
A few months ago, Professor Scott Kominers and Cliff Maxwell, former Chief of Staff to Clayton Christensen and an HBS alumnus, co-authored an HBR article entitled, What Makes An Online Marketplace Disruptive? They pointed out that rather than digitize or make existing transactions more efficient, truly disruptive marketplaces create entirely new transactions, engaging non-consumers and/or non-producers. In this episode, Scott joins Cliff to discuss a number of topics relevant to online marketplace disruption, including sources of market failure; entrepreneurial opportunities for marketplace design; trust as an enabler of market participation; the disruptive potential of platforms enabled by Web3 and blockchain technologies; market design as a tool for addressing inequality; and much more! They draw on examples such as the experience of buying a used car, Airbnb’s disruptive business model, and the market for high-end art. This is a must-listen conversation for those curious about mar…
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Jan 18, 2022
86. How To Grow A Startup Using Jobs To Be Done: A Conversation with Matt Lerner
In 2015, when Matt Lerner jumped from Director at PayPal to early-stage VC and advisor, Clayton Christensen’s ideas flipped from being interesting theories to essential daily practices. Matt has now worked with over 100 startups, helping them to find product market fit and scale. He runs Startup Core Strengths and helps companies use Jobs interviews to speed growth, even with startup budgets. In this episode, Matt joins host Katie Zandbergen to discuss the five tactics that drove 90% of PayPal’s hyper-growth; failure rates and patterns from 500 Startups’ portfolio of 1,800 investments; the root causes of why most venture-backed startups fail; how two startups used their Jobs lessons to disrupt crowded markets and grow immensely; and the danger zone right after a fundraise when founders' overconfidence can bias crucial decisions, to name but a few examples. This episode is a master class for anyone looking to harness the power of the Jobs To Be Done framework to build and grow a y…
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Dec 14, 2021
85. An Out Of The Box Model for Education: A Conversation with Amar Kumar
During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, many parents opted or were directed by their children’s schools to enroll students in online learning. However, for a number of reasons – including students feeling lonely, the online model often requiring heavy involvement by parents in the learning process, and the practicalities of caregivers needing to return to work – online learning hasn’t gained longer-term traction but is instead seen by many families as a short-term solution during challenging times. Observing these trends, and wanting also to help break the connection between geography and educational outcomes, Amar Kumar saw an opportunity to build a new company, KaiPod Learning. As Founder & CEO, Amar makes a distinction between “Zoom School”, which many students around the world experienced in one form or another over the past two years, and a true online learning experience. Hosted by The Christensen Institute’s Thomas Arnett, they discuss the Jobs To Be Done of…
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Nov 16, 2021
84. The Senior Leadership Dilemma: A Conversation with Alex Slawsby and Christian Stadler
The challenges faced by senior leaders seeking to transform well-established organizations are well documented. What’s more, roadmaps for tackling these challenges are widely available. Still, incumbent organizations continue to fail at an ever-increasing rate and senior leaders struggle to take the steps they know they should take to keep their companies innovative and thriving. Why? In this episode, Alex Slawsby and Christian Stadler join host Katie Zandbergen to delve into this dilemma of senior leadership and, in doing so, also propose some rather unconventional solutions. Listen to learn more!
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Oct 19, 2021
83. Corporate Innovation and Venture Building: A Conversation with Christina Nesheva
In her new role as CEO at Officinae Bio, Christina Nesheva is working to create an inherently innovative organization that pushes the boundaries of nature co-design. In doing so, she draws on her experience having led one of the pharmaceutical industry's first innovation labs, at ViiV Healthcare, along with her time driving innovation, change, and new product commercialization at the pharmaceutical giant, GSK. In this episode, Christina, who is also a startup mentor and author of The Entrepreneur's BattleBook, joins host Erika Meldrim to reflect on what it takes to advance innovation at both incumbent and startup organizations. Inspired by Clay’s research, they discuss the role of senior leadership in supporting innovation at large companies; the critical insights gained from maintaining a focus on customers’ Jobs To Be Done; the challenges and opportunities associated with operating on two tracks, having a strategy both for today and for what’s on the horizon; the entrepreneuria…
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Oct 5, 2021
82. K-12 School Systems, Seize This Moment! A Conversation with Thomas Arnett
Tom Arnett is Senior Research Fellow – Education at The Clayton Christensen Institute, where he studies instructional models and demand for innovative resources and practices across the K-12 education system. In this episode, he joins host Michael Horn to dig into his latest research, sharing insights on what Clay’s frameworks can tell us about recent developments in online learning and also how the incorporation of new techniques in K-12 schooling models might evolve as we slowly emerge from the pandemic. For instance, can lessons learned on what not to do with online learning help to ignite its adoption going forward? How are teachers thinking about their instructional models in a world rocked by pandemic disruption? How have school systems' RPPs affected their response to the pandemic? And will schools work to reinvent their business models to accommodate changing stakeholder expectations or will K-12 schools remain largely unchanged in the longer term? Listen to this engaging c…
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Sep 20, 2021
81. Innovation at Johnson & Johnson: A Conversation with Dr. William Hait
In this episode, Dr. William Hait, Global Head of Johnson & Johnson External Innovation, discusses how the 135 year old company is using the principles of disruption to improve the trajectory of healthcare across the globe. Dr. Hait, who leads a unit comprised of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, the Lung Cancer Initiative at Johnson & Johnson, and the company's World Without Disease Accelerator, oversees the creation of transformational new growth platforms. Hosted by Innosight's Josh Suskewicz, they discuss The Innovator’s Prescription and how one of the keys to disruption in healthcare is the democratization of products and services enabled by the deskilling of complex medical procedures; eliminating disease through prevention, interception, and cure (including why a focus on prevention is so crucial and so challenging); redefining how we think about disease; the importance of anchor assets; and why the support of leadership at the highest levels is crucial to warding off disruption i…
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Sep 1, 2021
80. From the Archives: Clayton Christensen On The Power of Good Theory and a Common Language
In honor of The Disruptive Voice's 80th episode, along with the start of the new academic year at Harvard Business School, we decided to re-release this recording from our archives. Originally released in September of 2016, Clay had invited some of his former Building & Sustaining a Successful Enterprise (BSSE) students back to campus to talk about the goals of the course, while also taking questions from the audience. In this episode, he discusses not only what the BSSE course has set out to achieve, but also the importance of having a common language and way to frame problems, and what theory has to say about competitive response, electric vehicles, mergers and acquisitions, RPPs (resources, processes, and priorities), anomalies, enabling technologies, measuring one's life, and more! Take yourself back five years in time and pull up a seat to this great session with Prof Clayton Christensen.
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Aug 2, 2021
79. The End Of An Era: A Conversation with Steve Kaufman
Back in 2003, Steve Kaufman was the first partner who Clay brought on to teach the BSSE course with him, and he has subsequently had a tremendous impact on generations of our students. At the end of June, Steve officially retired from the Harvard Business School. As such, we wanted to sit down with him to have him to reflect on his career and time working with Clay, his thoughts on the course and its cases, and his forecast for the future of management education. Hosted by Derek van Bever, the two also discuss a number of Steve’s “Kaufmanisms” (for instance, never try to teach a pig to sing; good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgement; if you can’t hide it, feature it; and culture eats strategy for breakfast every morning!), along with his thoughts on the importance of mentorship, disruptive versus sustaining innovations, his favorite BSSE frameworks, whether incumbents have become better at warding off disruption, and so much more. Enjoy this li…
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Jul 19, 2021
78. Shining A Light On Dark Kitchens: A Conversation with Prashant Srivastava and Sam Pogosov
One consequence of the coronavirus pandemic has been the acceleration of many industry trends that had already been underway in 2019. The ever-increasing pace of change in the restaurant industry is no exception, and one particular development of note has been the rise of dark kitchens, also known as cloud kitchens or ghost kitchens. A few months ago, Sam and Prashant (along with co-author Yury Adamov) published a paper entitled, “When Kitchens Go Dark: How Covid-19 Could Transform the Restaurant Industry.” In this episode, they join Steve Geskos to further elaborate on the topic, taking a deep dive into the world of dark kitchens. Both draw on Prof Christensen’s theories to reflect on the restaurant space, but Sam - Founder and CEO of Phinix Virtual Kitchens Group - considers industry change from the perspective of an entrepreneur who abandoned his brick-and-mortar restaurant in order to adopt a dark kitchen business model, while Prashant offers insights from his vantage point a…
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Jun 28, 2021
77. Improving The World Through Disruptive Innovation: A Conversation with Ann Christensen
Many listeners will know Ann Christensen as President & CEO of The Clayton Christensen Institute. To Clay, however, she was his oldest daughter, Annie. How Will You Measure Your Life, published with co-authors James Allworth & Karen Dillon in 2012, is one of Clay’s most popular books, challenging each of us to think more deeply about our life and our purpose, including how we nurture our relationships to become enduring sources of happiness. In this episode, and through the lens of How Will You Measure Your Life, Ann reflects on what it was like to grow up in the Christensen house, sharing stories and memories of Clay as a father. Hosted by Katie Zandbergen, she also discusses her path from Duke University to Mongolia to Harvard Business School and beyond, along with the story of The Christensen Institute, both where it’s been and where Ann hopes to lead the organization in the future. At the helm of The Christensen Institute, and embodying Clay’s love of learning from “all kin…
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Jun 15, 2021
76. The Juggernaut's Journey: A Conversation with Snigdha Sur
Snigdha Sur is a Harvard Business School alumna and founder of The Juggernaut, a premium publication and community that publishes smart and well-reported stories about South Asia and South Asians. Hosted by Anibha Singh, Snigdha discusses developments and gaps in the news and media landscape, including how these impact South Asian diaspora communities; the story behind the founding of The Juggernaut, along with how the organization has evolved from conception, through its development, to its current form; and her vision for the platform going forward. In chronicling her experiences as Founder & CEO at The Juggernaut, Snigdha also reflects on the BSSE theories that have informed her path, shares insights on what the entrepreneurial journey has taught her about launching a venture as a minority female founder, considers the future of media, and offers advice to those looking to build and sustain successful enterprises of their own.
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Jun 1, 2021
75. Building & Strengthening Students’ Networks: A Conversation with Julia Freeland Fisher
In this conversation, hosted by Michael Horn, Julia builds on her foundational statement, “Opportunity really sits at the intersection of what you know and who you know.” Together, they discuss the important distinctions between our strong tie and weak tie networks; innovation in education; the ed tech market and which tools are best suited for network building, and in which circumstances; the Cadillac versus the KIA of mentoring organizations and strategies; performance metrics; the rise of chat bots, and more! Julia also shines a light on the new playbook created by The Clayton Christensen Institute, designed to support K-12 and post-secondary leadership in the implementation and adaptation of strategies, tools, and metrics that build and strengthen their students’ networks. The disruption story here lies in the potential not of putting all relationships online but rather exploiting technology’s competitive advantage to diversify our weak tie networks, which are most helpful…
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May 18, 2021
74. Electric Cars For Everyone: A Conversation with John de Souza
John de Souza is an entrepreneur and investor who, over the course of his career, has accumulated a great depth of experience in sectors of technology, automotive, health, and finance. In this episode, he joins Steve Geskos to discuss his current role as Co-Founder and President at Ample, a company whose mission is to accelerate the transition to electric mobility through the offering of an energy delivery solution that is as fast, as convenient, and as cheap as gas, while also being powered by 100% renewable energy. This is accomplished by delivering energy to electric vehicles through modular battery swapping, which resonates greatly with the Interdependence & Modularity framework taught in the Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise (BSSE) course developed by Prof Christensen at Harvard Business School. Ample’s swapping stations require no construction and take up only the space of two parking spots, the swapping process itself is fully automated, and their future-proof ba…
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May 4, 2021
73. The Secret Lives of Customers: A Conversation With David Duncan
Along with his work as a Managing Director at Innosight, the consulting firm co-founded by Clayton Christensen and Mark Johnson over two decades ago, David Duncan is also a co-author with Clay on Competing Against Luck and co-author with Scott Anthony, host of this episode, on Building A Growth Factory. Most recently, David - a leading authority on the Jobs To Be Done framework, and drawing on his wealth of experience conducting market investigations – has published The Secret Lives of Customers: A Detective Story About Solving the Mystery of Customer Behavior. David and Scott touch on a myriad of topics in this insightful and witty conversation. In one instance, David, reflecting on the experience of writing his page-turning mystery, tells listeners, "I've always thought that doing research on customers is kind of like detective work. You go out in the world, you do interviews, you try to gather clues and piece together patterns and make observations, and you draw out insights to cr…
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Apr 19, 2021
72. Making Your Own Luck in Emerging Economies: Innovative Strategies for Creating New Markets
In this episode, Efosa Ojomo returns to The Disruptive Voice to discuss his latest research at The Christensen Institute’s Global Prosperity group. He and his colleague, Lincoln Wilcox, recently published a report highlighting six innovative strategies for creating new markets in emerging economies. This conversation, hosted by Katie Zandbergen, focuses on the findings from their research, along with the implications for those looking to create prosperity around the globe. Efosa speaks not only about the tremendous opportunities surrounding market-creating innovations, helping would-be entrepreneurs to see prospects for building and sustaining successful enterprises where they might least expect them, but also about demystifying the process, debunking false narratives and empowering entrepreneurs to launch innovative and market-creating ventures in emerging markets.
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Mar 31, 2021
71. Leading The Artling Through the Covid-19 Crisis: A Conversation with Talenia Phua Gajardo
Talenia Phua Gajardo, an alumna of HBS Executive Education’s Disruptive Innovation course, is Founder & CEO of The Artling, an online gallery and arts consultancy featuring a curated collection of art and design pieces from a myriad of artists, galleries, and designers. Founded in 2013, the organization aims to both showcase stunning works of art and to make them more accessible to a broader, international audience. As you’ll hear more about in this episode, the pandemic has presented The Artling with both challenges and opportunities, but of particular note is how Covid-19 has forced the rapid digitization of art galleries. Hosted by Chris Diak, Talenia discusses steps she’s taken to steer The Artling through choppy coronavirus waters; her thoughts on why people hire art and design; the importance of trust in this age of increasing e-commerce; how she’s thinking about pursuing growth and scaling her organization; the experience of art in-person versus through online platforms;…
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Mar 16, 2021
70. Applying the Minimill Playbook: A Conversation with CEO of Norsk Titanium, Mike Canario
Many students of Clayton Christensen’s will be familiar with the US Steel case that he wrote as a graduate student in the 1990s, one that is still used today in the BSSE curriculum at Harvard Business School. The case tells the story of the minimills’ low-end disruption of US Steel, entering the market with rebar and then steadily moving up-market to bars & rods, then on to structural steel, and finally to sheet steel at the high end of the market. The incumbent, US Steel, was caught in a classic example of what Clay called “the innovator’s dilemma”, losing its position of leadership precisely because management made logical and competent decisions along the way. In this episode, we highlight another great example of a low-end disruptor, Norsk Titanium. The company successfully entered the low end of the metal manufacturing market and now, like the minimills before it, is planning its disruptive march up-market. Hosted by Katie Zandbergen, Mike Canario, CEO of Norsk Titanium,…
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Feb 26, 2021
69. Bioengineering at Scale, A Conversation with Anna Marie Wagner of Ginkgo Bioworks
We're delighted to begin Season 4 of The Disruptive Voice with Anna Marie Wagner, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Ginkgo Bioworks. Hosted by Derek van Bever, Anna Marie discusses the transformative potential of bioengineering and the work her company is doing to help facilitate it. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar, Anna Marie worked as an investor with Bain Capital Private Equity for several years before diving into the world of biotechnology. In this rich discussion, she teaches Derek (and all of us!) about synthetic biology, and the barriers to more nimble forms of biotech development, as well as the platform solution that Ginkgo has devised to facilitate biological innovation.
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Jan 14, 2021
68. Remodeling Venture Capital, with Elliott Parker
In the early days of venture capital, investors played a dual role as financiers and innovators, partnering with their portfolio companies to design and develop their operations from the ground up. Nowadays most VC firms don't generate and pursue innovations but rather source and grow start-ups that already exist. For established businesses seeking to self-disrupt with autonomous units, these circumstances pose a distinctive challenge that contemporary venture capitalists are generally ill-equipped to solve. Elliott Parker, CEO of High Alpha Innovation, is using theory to guide him in rekindling an earlier, partnership model of venture capital in a new form: the venture studio. A former Innosight consultant whose work has spanned growth, strategy, and operations, Elliott is hosted by Anibha Singh, herself an Innosight alum and a current Research Associate at Harvard Business School. We hope you enjoy this fascinating conversation on the future of innovation and venture capital!
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Dec 10, 2020
67. Long Life Learning and Preparing for Jobs That Don’t Even Exist Yet: A Conversation with Michelle R. Weise, PhD
Michelle Weise is an expert in higher education and in the development of more innovative workforce and talent pipelines. A former Senior Research Fellow in Higher Education at The Christensen Institute, she joined us on The Disruptive Voice to reflect on her career over the last decade, which has concentrated on preparing working-age adults for the jobs of both today and tomorrow. Hosted by Katie Zandbergen, they discuss Michelle's experiences working with Clayton Christensen, her thoughts on the disruptive potential of online competency-based education, her time in the role of Chief Innovation Officer at Southern New Hampshire University (where she lived the innovator’s dilemma!) and, of course, her newly-published book, “Long Life Learning: Preparing for Jobs That Don’t Even Exist Yet”.
In that book, Michelle considers questions of huge consequence, including “Can a four year degree earned at the beginning of a 100 year career possibly prepare us for all that is to come i…
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Nov 24, 2020
66. Defending The Castle Against Disruptors: Jean Wright, MD/MBA on Innovation in Healthcare
Over a year ago, The Forum for Growth & Innovation team ventured to North Carolina to learn about the ways in which a group of innovators had spread the gospel of disruption to the senior leadership of Atrium Health. Regular listeners of the podcast may remember when we interviewed Atrium's Ann-Somers Hogg on her experience of studying the theories of Disruptive Innovation and Jobs To Be Done as an executive education participant at HBS, before bringing the learnings and language home to her team at Atrium Health and spreading it to senior leadership, including through enrollment in HBS Online's Disruptive Strategy course.
This week, we are delighted to release, at long last, a conversation with the mind behind the mission: Jean Wright, MD/MBA, the former Chief Innovation Officer at Atrium Health. In her position, Jean was well aware of the challenges of disruption facing her industry and sought out ways to build a culture of innovation and learning at Atrium, for instance, by sendin…
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Nov 11, 2020
65. Can Hyper-Localized Automation Transform Grocery Shopping?
Online grocery shopping isn't (really) catching on. While there has been real growth in the number of Americans who shop for groceries online in 2020, even in the midst of a global pandemic, the vast majority of customers choose to shop in person. Why?
This week on The Disruptive Voice, we're delighted to bring you José Vicente Aguerrevere and Max Pedró, co-founders of Takeoff Technologies, for a look behind the scenes at their efforts to build and sustain a technology company aimed at eliminating a major barrier to online grocery retailing. After taking BSSE with Professor Christensen, Max and José graduated from HBS as Baker Scholars in 2002, pursued careers in blue chip banking, consulting, and retail firms, and fourteen years later felt called to co-found a technology firm. Based on the idea that finding the right trade-offs could make online grocery retailing cost effective to both the retailer and customer, Max and José have turned their start-up into a global company. Host…
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Oct 28, 2020
64. Your Best Friend's Voice: A Conversation With Amelia Lin, Founder and CEO of Saga
When was the last time you heard your best friend's voice? This question is at the heart of this week's episode of The Disruptive Voice. We're now seven months into a global pandemic that has torn and kept friends and families apart. In the midst of all this distance and distress, many are searching for ways to deeply and authentically connect with those they love. That's why we reached out to Amelia Lin, an alumna of HBS and Harvard College who is in the early stages of developing a social media platform called Saga that enables a refreshingly personal form of connection. Saga is a personal family podcast app designed to facilitate and store family histories, and one that has recently transformed into a new kind of social network. In this episode, Amelia discusses the story behind the app, some of the ways that it is currently being used, and the power of intimate, shared spaces to reshape our social media futures. She is hosted by Chris Diak, Program Assistant at The Forum and an M.D…
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Oct 14, 2020
63. Understanding Demand-Side Sales with Bob Moesta
Why are there no sales professors at the Harvard Business School or anywhere else, for that matter? Given that selling products and services is such a fundamental aspect of business, it may surprise you to learn that "most MBA programs offer no sales-related courses at all, and those that do offer only a single course in sales management." Enter Bob Moesta, President & CEO of the Re-Wired Group, and a well-known presence here at The Forum for Growth & Innovation. With his new book, Demand-Side Sales 101, Bob is on a mission to teach sales with the sophistication and rigor that you'd expect from a top MBA program, to help salespeople understand the real value of their work, and to help people who are not in sales to see how understanding their work as sales enables them to create progress in the lives of those they care about. Hosted by Katie Zandbergen, Community Manager at The Forum for Growth & Innovation, Bob discusses a range of topics, including the new Covid-context, and he ties…
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Sep 29, 2020
62. COVID-19 and the Educator's Dilemma: A Conversation with Michael Horn
This week, as the New York City public schools scramble to re-open and students across the country settle into routines that are anything but routine, we checked in with Michael Horn to hear his views on the state of education amidst the pandemic. Michael is a widely published researcher, strategist, and innovator who co-founded The Clayton Christensen Institute and currently serves as Senior Strategist at Guild Education. Hosted by Christopher Diak, Program Assistant at The Forum and an M.Div. candidate at Harvard Divinity School, Michael discusses the acceleration of disruption under the pandemic, the "educator's dilemma" of business model innovation with competing value propositions, and the ways he personally is adapting to the pandemic using a learning pod approach, among several other timely topics.
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Sep 15, 2020
61. Business Model Innovation at Innosight: A Conversation with Erika J. Meldrim
Over the course of the twentieth century, the growth of the consulting industry was fueled by a series of sustaining innovations that strongly influenced the practice of management and corporate strategy. As a result, leading consulting firms today have well-defined value propositions and business models, offering premium, high cost services to a relatively small pool of clients, while simultaneously creating the conditions for non-consumption across vast swaths of the business landscape. Put simply, most businesses that could potentially benefit from the expertise of leading consulting firms cannot afford their services, nor do these services and the underlying collaboration model necessarily align with the processes or priorities of the client’s organization. The coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated these disparities, begging the question of whether new consulting models may be on the horizon.
This week on The Disruptive Voice, we’re delighted to bring you a conversation wi…
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Sep 1, 2020
60. Overcoming the Capitalist's Dilemma, with Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services
In The Capitalist's Dilemma, Clayton Christensen and Derek van Bever highlighted a persistent temptation for companies to increase profitability by driving down costs through "efficiency innovations." For many companies awash in capital, this increased profitability came at the expense of hundreds or thousands of jobs and often ignored the sources of long-term, sustainable growth: what Clay and Derek termed market-creating innovations. The trillion dollar exception to this rule is Amazon.
Today, we are thrilled to bring you a conversation with Andy Jassy, HBS Class of 1997 and CEO of Amazon Web Services, including a wide-ranging discussion of Amazon's solutions to the Capitalist's Dilemma. Hosted by Derek van Bever, Andy tells the origin story of AWS, discusses the process of innovation at Amazon, and presents a graduate-level seminar on how to apply Clay's theories to drive innovation and growth. This is a not-to-be-missed conversation!
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Aug 18, 2020
59. La Bohème In The Living Room? Pope Ward On The Transformation of Arts Organizations During COVID-19
Here at The Disruptive Voice, we've applied the theory of Jobs To Be Done to healthcare, education, poverty, and religion, among many other topics. This week we're considering the reasons that people hire and fire the arts. As COVID-19 continues to shape our communities and lives, we're excited to bring you this timely conversation with Pope Ward, Chief Research Officer at the Advisory Board for the Arts, to discuss the ways in which arts organizations can respond to this moment. The Advisory Board for the Arts (ABA) is the first global company to provide strategic advisory services to arts organizations worldwide, and Pope has conducted dozens of Jobs interviews during his tenure as CRO to better understand the reasons why people engage with the arts. Hosted by Katie Zandbergen, Community Manager at The Forum for Growth & Innovation, Pope discusses standout responses to COVID-19, for instance, at Tsuru Rising and the Geffen Playhouse; Jobs that have emerged or become increasingly sign…
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Aug 3, 2020
58. The View From the Desk by Clay's Office
On this week's episode of The Disruptive Voice, we're delighted to bring you a conversation with Erin Wetzel and Emily Snyder about their life-changing experiences working with Clayton Christensen at Harvard Business School. Emily, currently Chief of Staff at Magnolia, served as Clay's Administrative Director for five years before attending Columbia Business School. Erin joined Clay's office in 2018, five years after meeting Clay and Emily in Oxford, and has worked as his Faculty Support Specialist at HBS while simultaneously pursuing a masters in social work at Boston University. The two reflect on their entry into Clay's world, share stories and reflections from their time with him, including his style as a manager, and discuss the applications of the theories taught in the Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise course to work and life.
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Jul 15, 2020
57. Eat, Sleep, Innovate: A Conversation with Scott D. Anthony
As the coronavirus continues to reshape the world, we turned to Scott D. Anthony, Managing Director at Innosight, to discuss his friendship and collaboration with Clayton Christensen; innovating during big event disruptions; the important concept of dual transformation; the role of Jobs To Be Done in strategic innovation; and his forthcoming book, "Eat, Sleep, Innovate: How to Make Creativity an Everyday Habit Inside Your Organization". Co-authored with Paul Cobban, Natalie Painchaud, and Andy Parker, the book draws on behavioral science and management theory to construct a playbook for leaders working to navigate transformational events, making innovation a natural and habitual act within both their teams and organizations. Since 2010, Scott has been based in Innosight's Singapore office, leading the firm’s expansion into the Asia-Pacific region, and along the way has authored numerous books and articles for such publications as the Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management R…
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Jun 30, 2020
56. Disruption Amidst Disruption: FinTech in the Age of Coronavirus
This week on The Disruptive Voice we're delighted to bring you a timely conversation with Professor Luis Viceira and David Snider (MBA '13) on the state of the FinTech industry. Luis serves as the George E. Bates Professor in the Finance Unit and is also Senior Associate Dean for Executive Education at Harvard Business School, where he conducts research on long-term asset allocation, asset pricing, fixed income markets, and innovation and disruption in the money management industry, among many other topics of interest. He also serves as an advisor to Harness Wealth, a financial technology firm co-founded in 2018 by David Snider and Katie English (MBA '10) that connects individuals with a curated set of financial advisors for tax, estate and trust, and financial planning. Before founding Harness Wealth, David was a CFO/COO at Compass and an Executive-in-Residence at Bain Capital Ventures.
In this episode, David and Luis are hosted by Derek van Bever, Director of The Forum for Growth &…
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Jun 16, 2020
55. Financing Your Education (and yours and yours and yours): A Conversation with LeverEdge Co-Founders Nikhil Agarwal and Chris Abkarians
When Nikhil Agarwal and Chris Abkarians were admitted to the Harvard Business School MBA Class of 2020, neither of them could have guessed that their efforts to negotiate on the price of their student loans would be transformed into a viable new venture. However, before they had even set foot on campus, they had saved themselves and around 700 of their peers an average of $15,000 each on their student loans. Realizing the potential of their efforts, Nikhil and Chris co-founded LeverEdge to further develop their model, using group buying power to negotiate better student loan rates with lenders. In this episode of The Disruptive Voice, Anibha Singh hosts Nikhil and Chris for a discussion on the structure of the student loan industry, how LeverEdge fits into that space, the flow of information throughout the lending and borrowing process, and the costs and benefits of using government or private loans to finance an education. We encourage our listeners to reach out to Chris and Nikhil if…
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May 29, 2020
54. Disruption and New Patterns of Media Consumption, with Shilpa Bisaria
Do you remember having cable TV? Many of us do not. Over the last twenty years, the media landscape has been transformed amidst waves of disruption, technological innovation, and changing patterns of media consumption. Today on The Disruptive Voice, we bring you a timely conversation with Shilpa Bisaria, Senior Director of Growth Strategy and Operations at WarnerMedia, discussing how she has used management theory to guide her efforts in the media industry. Before taking on her current role, Shilpa worked for several years at Innosight, a consulting firm co-founded by Clayton Christensen and Mark Johnson that focuses on helping organizations to design and create the future, rather than be disrupted by it. During that time, she met Anibha Singh, now a Research Associate at The Forum for Growth & Innovation and your host for this episode. Together they discuss recent trends in the media industry, how Warner Media is targeting non-consumption, and Shilpa's work on a new social agency call…
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May 22, 2020
53. Reflections on The Prosperity Paradox, with Euvin Naidoo and Efosa Ojomo
This week on The Disruptive Voice, we're delighted to introduce you to Euvin Naidoo and Efosa Ojomo, who join us for a conversation about innovation, prosperity, and development in Africa. Originally from KwaDukuza, South Africa, Euvin is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, where he studies risk management, performance controls, governance, and agile execution. In doing so, he regularly draws on his work in leading banking and financial institutions in Africa, including McKinsey, Standard Bank, and BCG. He is joined by Efosa Ojomo, Global Prosperity Lead and Senior Research Fellow at the Christensen Institute. A 2015 HBS MBA who took BSSE with Clayton Christensen, Efosa also worked with Clay and Karen Dillon on what would be Clay's last book: The Prosperity Paradox. Euvin and Efosa are hosted by Erin Wetzel, Clay's Faculty Support Specialist at Harvard Business School, and together they reflect on the impact of Clay's thinking, how it applies in a pan-African context, and the…
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Apr 30, 2020
52. Leadership and Commitment in Times of Crisis
Twenty years ago, Mark W. Johnson and Clayton Christensen co-founded Innosight, a consulting firm focused on helping organizations to design and create the future, rather than be disrupted by it. This week on The Disruptive Voice, we’re pleased to welcome Mark for some reflections on his work and friendship with Clay; on a process of longer-term management called future-back thinking, which he and co-author Josh Suskewicz explore in their newly-released book, Lead From The Future: How To Turn Visionary Thinking Into Breakthrough Growth; and on ways in which senior leaders can apply these methods in organizations that struggle to look beyond the 3-5 year growth horizon. Hosted by Katie Zandbergen, Mark also shares insights about the distinction between vision and strategy, the story of Apple’s transformation from a computer company to a lifestyle company, and how we can think about applying the lessons from Lead From The Future in our current moment of crisis.
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Apr 15, 2020
51. The Future of BSSE, with Rory McDonald
This week on The Disruptive Voice, we're delighted to introduce you to Professor Rory McDonald, the Thai-Hi T. Lee Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Before his untimely passing, Clayton Christensen named Rory as the Course Head of Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise and also charged him with leading and transforming BSSE to fit the needs of its newest students. In this episode, Rory discusses new cases and theories that have been added to BSSE, including "Parrot: Navigating the Nascent Drone Industry", "Marcus by Goldman Sachs", and a module note on purpose brands, to name just a few. He is hosted by Anibha Singh, a Research Associate here at The Forum for Growth & Innovation who has worked extensively with Rory over the previous year. Together, they also discuss how these changes to the course interface with Rory's latest research on pioneering nascent markets. We hope you enjoy this timely and informative discussion!
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Apr 2, 2020
50. From the Archives: Clayton Christensen and Joseph Bower on Resource Allocation
In the midst of this global coronavirus crisis, we at The Forum for Growth & Innovation are reflecting on how we can lend our hands and hearts to meet the needs of those in our community. Now, more than ever, we are mourning the loss of our friend and colleague, Clayton Christensen, who would have turned 68 this coming Monday, April 6th. This month also marks the release of our 50th podcast episode and, to celebrate this milestone, we’d like to share with you a conversation with Clay, Derek van Bever, and Joe Bower, Clay's doctoral thesis adviser and the Donald K. David Professor Emeritus at Harvard Business School. They discuss the origins of Resource Allocation theory, including Joe's groundbreaking book, Managing the Resource Allocation Process: A Study of Corporate Planning and Investment, as Joe's work both sparked Clay's insights into Disruptive Innovation and continues to offer key insights to firms today. The three also speak about the future of management and offer tips for…
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Mar 19, 2020
49. Disruption and the Democratization of K-12 Education: A Conversation with Thomas Arnett
This week on The Disruptive Voice, we are delighted to bring you a conversation, recorded in early March, with Thomas Arnett. Thomas is a Senior Research Fellow - Education at the Clayton Christensen Institute, where he researches disruption in K-12 education, considers the role of educational technology in blended learning teaching models, and contributes to thought leadership on legislation and policies related to digital learning, teacher preparation, and teacher development. Previously, Thomas served as Board President at the Morgan Hill Unified School District, worked as an Education Pioneers Fellow with Achievement First, and was a middle school math teacher at Teach For America in Kansas City, Missouri.
Given the national experiment in online education that has begun in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, with schools across the country transitioning to online learning, this conversation has become even more timely. In this episode, Thomas shares insights on the limits of dis…
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Feb 28, 2020
48. Disrupting Healthcare with Dr. Mahek Shah: How Tech Companies, The Patient Experience, and Innovations are Paramount to Transforming the Healthcare Industry
In the US, many go bankrupt due to the extraordinary high costs in our healthcare system. On an annual basis, we spend around $3.6 trillion – or 18% of GDP – on healthcare, but what do we get in exchange? In this engaging episode, Dr. Mahek Shah discusses several topics at the heart of creating a more affordable and accessible healthcare industry: pricing prescription drugs, creating a better patient experience, and unleashing innovation through the power of technology. For instance, what if going to the doctor was akin to the experience of visiting an Apple store?
Mahek has spent his career at the intersection of business, healthcare, and technology, working to help redesign, reimagine, and rehumanize healthcare. He's been at the frontier of advising organizations in moving to value-based care, understanding their Jobs To Be Done, and leveraging technology to deliver patient-centered care.
Listen now to hear from Dr. Shah as Katie Zandbergen, Community Manager at The Forum for G…
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Feb 7, 2020
47. Micromobility and The Future of Transportation: A Conversation with Horace Dediu
Here at Harvard Business School, we are mourning the recent passing of Professor Clayton Christensen. As many listeners will know, Clay died in late January following complications from leukemia. Our hearts go out to all who knew and were touched by him, and we feel that now, more than ever, we must press on, sharing his life’s work. Therefore, we are heartened to bring you this conversation with one of Clay’s brightest students: Horace Dediu. Horace is an analyst who studied disruption with Clay at The Christensen Institute. He's now leading a new revolution in how we transport ourselves: the micromobility revolution. He's the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at BOND Mobility, he co-founded a community-building and content-generating organization called Micromobility Industries, and he's an Analyst at Asymco. In his work, he draws on the theories of Disruption and Jobs To Be Done to target new and low-end markets. In fact, Horace contends that fully half of all driven miles i…
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Jan 17, 2020
46. Journalism and Politics in an Age of Disruption: A Conversation with Bob Cohn
In 2009, at a time when The Atlantic was a 152 year old publication known chiefly for its erudite monthly magazine, Bob Cohn joined as Editor of Atlantic Digital. A career journalist, he arrived at The Atlantic five years into a fifteen year wave of disruption that shuttered the doors of some 1,800 local newspapers across the United States. Under Bob’s leadership, digital publishing thrived at The Atlantic, and he was named Co-President & COO in 2013 and President in 2016.
Bob is hosted on this podcast episode by Derek van Bever, Director of The Forum for Growth & Innovation, and it was recorded in late November of 2019, while Bob was a Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where he taught a semester long series called “Journalism and Politics in an Age of Disruption.”
Bob and Derek discuss the structure of the media industry and the fallout of disruption over the last 20 years, the circumstances which enabled The Atlantic to…
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Dec 30, 2019
45. Modernizing Energy Transmission & Distribution Infrastructure for the Development of Sustainable and Resilient Communities, with Jessica O. Matthews
2020 is nearly upon us and here at The Forum we’re delighted to welcome the new year with Jessica O. Matthews, Founder & CEO of Uncharted Power. Jessica, a member of the HBS Class of 2014 and a BSSE alumna, is working to transform the global energy system into a renewable, smart, and distributed network of clean energy technology. A prolific inventor and entrepreneur, she was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and is listed on 11 patents and patents pending for technologies relating to energy generation, transmission, and storage. In this episode, Jessica discusses the challenges associated with our aging power grid infrastructure; the impact of her dual US/Nigerian citizenship on design strategies; viable options for energy generation, storage, and transmission; and the smart technologies that she and her team are working to develop at Uncharted Power.
She is hosted by Katie Zandbergen, Community Manager at The Forum for Growth & Innovation. Katie holds a DPhil in Comparative Socia…
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Dec 20, 2019
44. Choosing College: Bob Moesta and Michael Horn on Why We Hire Education
It’s the most wonderful time of the year but for many high school seniors it means one thing: college application deadlines! This week on The Disruptive Voice, as millions of students hit “submit”, we’ve invited Bob Moesta and Michael Horn to The Forum to discuss why we go to college in the first place. They’ve recently released an excellent, highly-readable book called “Choosing College” that uses Jobs To Be Done-based research to examine why people hire education and how to choose it. You can further explore their findings at Choosing College.
Michael received his MBA from HBS in 2006 and, since then, has worked closely with Professor Christensen on disruption in education, including as Co-Founder of The Christensen Institute. He's currently the Head of Strategy & Senior Partner Entangled Group and is Chief Strategy Officer & Principal Consultant at Entangled Solutions. Bob is a Disruptive Voice podcast veteran and, along with Prof Christensen, is co-architect of the J…
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Nov 30, 2019
43. Why Did You Hire HBS?
The holidays are always a time of reflection and here at The Forum we’re looking inward to understand why people hire Harvard Business School to earn an MBA. Derek van Bever, Director of The Forum for Growth & Innovation, is joined in the studio by Community Manager, Katie Zandbergen, and Research Associate, Iulia Mogosanu, to discuss a research project they’ve undertaken using the Jobs To Be Done approach pioneered by Bob Moesta and Clayton Christensen. This research was carried out as part of a JTBD Toolbox initiative that The Forum team is working on for those interested in learning more about the practicalities of conducting Jobs-based consumer research. In this episode, we discuss the six steps outlined in the JTBD Toolbox, which will be released later this academic year; the process of conducting Jobs interviews; and three Jobs for which students and professionals hire Harvard Business School.
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Nov 15, 2019
42. Disruption and Electrification in the Auto Industry, Featuring Cliff Maxwell and Ned Calder
This week on The Disruptive Voice we bring you a conversation between Cliff Maxwell and Ned Calder on the electrification of the auto industry -- or, more broadly, the mobility industry -- using the theories of Disruption and Jobs To Be Done. As a partner at Innosight, where he has worked for over a decade, Ned has consciously applied these theories in his work in the high tech, automotive, aerospace, and defense sectors. His wealth of experience in the tech world also stems from his time with NASA and Atlas Scientific, where he worked prior to joining Innosight. Cliff Maxwell is a newly minted MBA candidate at Harvard Business School who most recently served as Clayton Christensen’s Chief of Staff and as a Product Manager at the Clayton Christensen Institute, where he worked on projects related to educational technology. We’re delighted to bring you this timely conversation on the push to electrify vehicles, the disruptive forces shaping the mobility industry, the prospects for au…
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Oct 27, 2019
41. The Future Is Already Here—It’s Just Not Very Evenly Distributed: A Conversation with Hari Nair
This week on The Disruptive Voice, we are joined in the studio by Hari Nair, a longtime member of Clay World and one of the original members of the Innosight Asia team. Hari’s career has been focused on overcoming the challenges to innovation, in organizations large and small. Among the many projects and ventures he has pursued, he was deeply involved in the design and rollout of the chotuKool, a market-creating innovation in India that we have profiled in a BSSE case study. Hari has much to teach on how to use Jobs theory to shape product innovation efforts, and on how to spot non-consumption. He offers some advice to entrepreneurs wishing to understand the cues and clues to next-generation products and services. Hari has been on campus for the past year as a member of the school’s Advanced Leadership Initiative, and it is a great pleasure to share what he has learned about innovation, and about targeting non-consumption, with all of you.
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Oct 8, 2019
40. Should Your Customers Trust Your Business?
This week on The Disruptive Voice, Derek van Bever is joined in the studio by venture capitalists Nate Redmond and Britt Danneman, of Alpha Edison, to discuss trust as a business model, as an asset, and as the foundation for new market innovation. Earlier this year, Nitin Nohria, Dean of Harvard Business School, wrote in the Financial Times that HBS and other business schools need to play a vital role in "molding leaders who deserve the world's trust." At The Forum for Growth & Innovation, we're responding to Dean Nohria's gauntlet by studying business models built on risk-shifting and by starting discussions about the role of trust and ethical leadership in business. We hope you'll enjoy this timely and thought-provoking conversation!
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Sep 24, 2019
39. Shaping the Work: Design and Development Through the Lens of Jobs Theory
This week on The Disruptive Voice, Shaye Roseman, a former Research Associate at The Forum for Growth & Innovation and a current MBA candidate at Harvard Business School, is joined in the studio by Bob Moesta and Ryan Singer. Bob is a regular on the podcast and is a principal co-architect of the theory of "Jobs To Be Done". Ryan has worked at Basecamp for over 15 years and has been involved with projects spanning UI design, strategy, and product development. He is currently Head of Strategy at the company. Together, Bob, Ryan and Shaye discuss the ways Jobs Theory can be employed as a tool for consumer research, on the one hand, and product development, on the other. In particular, they focus on the trials and travails of software development.
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Sep 9, 2019
38. Why Do People Hire (and Fire) Employers?
The best independent projects that BSSE students take on after completing the course have (at least) one thing in common: They are important—relevant to our students’ interests, as well as to the wider world. On this podcast, Maria Creixell (MBA 2019) and Ari Medoff (MBA/MPP 2011) share the findings from Maria’s research into why home health caregivers hire—and fire—employers, and what employers can do about it. To conduct this research, Maria learned how to conduct Jobs interviews at the feet of the master, Bob Moesta, and she selected Ari’s company, Arosa, as her research site because of a connection she and Ari struck up through the HBS alumni network. In a business that is entirely dependent on human capital, lowering search costs and improving employee retention are critical differentiators. For all of you seeking to improve your performance in hiring and retaining employees, listen and learn!
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Aug 15, 2019
37. A Jobs To Be Done Masterclass with Andrew Glaser and Bob Moesta
This week on The Disruptive Voice, Derek van Bever, Director of The Forum for Growth & Innovation and Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, is joined in the studio by Bob Moesta and Andrew Glaser for an illuminating discussion of the “paradox of innovation” through the lens of Jobs-to-be-Done Theory. Andrew is Chief Strategy Officer at American Signature, Inc. and an outspoken evangelist for JTBD, which was co-architected by Bob Moesta, President and CEO of the Re-Wired Group. We’re delighted to bring you this conversation on the disjunct between innovator and consumer perceptions, leveraging Jobs Theory effectively in an organization, and the role of honesty and vulnerability in JTBD interviews.
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Jul 30, 2019
36. "The World Isn't Waiting For Us": Disruptive Innovation in Healthcare
When Ann-Somers Hogg, Director of Innovation at Atrium Health, came to Cambridge to teach about disruption in healthcare at the Harvard Macy Institute “Leading Innovations” program, we invited her to the podcast studio to hear a little more about how disruption is affecting her organization—and what they are doing about it. Ann-Somers is a 2015 past participant of our Executive Education course now known as "Disruptive Innovation" and was recently named one of the “Top 40 Under 40” in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is someone to watch, and her message is relevant to anyone who is trying to do that most difficult thing: Turn a big organization around to face off against a disruptive entrant. She and Atrium are fully about the exercise, and we’re sure you’ll be as impressed with her as we have been.
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Jul 16, 2019
35. Why Do People Hire Religion?
And now for something completely different: What can we learn by looking at changes in religious affiliation through the lens of Jobs to Be Done? Why are rising generations “firing” organized religion in greater and greater numbers, and what are they “hiring” instead? And what do organizations such as Crossfit have to do with all this? Enjoy this conversation with our own Bob Moesta, co-founder of Jobs theory with Clay, and Casper ter Kuile, a Ministry Innovation Fellow with Harvard Divinity School and co-creator of the wildly popular podcast “Harry Potter and the Sacred Text.”
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Jun 26, 2019
34. Consulting on the Cusp of Disruption – Six Years Later
Through the lens of Jobs To Be Done, MBA graduates Jasmyn Beausejour and Nicolas Kernick consider the scale and complexity of the types of jobs for which clients hire the Big 3 consulting firms – McKinsey, BCG, and Bain. With the 2013 HBR article as the springboard for their research, their framework and analysis help to explain current trends in the consulting industry and, crucially, to consider where the industry may be heading in the future, both in terms of threats and opportunities.
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May 6, 2019
33. Solving the Problem of Fit: Todd Rose and Bob Moesta
A not to be missed conversation. We sit down with Bob Moesta and Todd Rose, Harvard professor and author of The End of Average, for a deep-dive on the underpinnings of jobs theory and analysis. You'll learn when to average vs. when to aggregate data and why individuality is so important in product and service design.
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Apr 9, 2019
32. Integration by the Book: Insights from my time at Arrow Electronics
Professor Derek van Bever speaks with BSSE case protagonist BJ Hess, former Senior Vice President of Global Operations for Arrow Electronics, to discuss the difficulty of business mergers and integrations. Hear why "Acquisition" is a bad word, and how business leaders can lead humane, successful integrations. BJ is a wealth of practical, intelligent experience, and continues to be a huge draw and delight for BSSE students.
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Mar 29, 2019
31. Integrating Theory into Your Organization: Black Duck by Synopsys
The Disruptive Voice hits the road, heading to BlackDuck by Synopsys headquarters in Burlington, MA. We sit down with Lou Shipley (CEO), Patrick Carey (Director of Product Marketing), and Tim Kenny (VP of Culture) to hear how Competing Against Luck became a company staple, and how BlackDuck created their own Jobs to Be Done culture -- complete with war room!
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Mar 18, 2019
30. Revisiting Resource Allocation in the Firm
Before returning to our Jobs to Be Done theme, we thought we'd share a little about how some of Clay's theories came to be. On the show today, hear Clay talk with one of his mentors, Joe Bower, the Donald K. David Professor Emeritus, about the origins of Resource Allocation theory. Joe's groundbreaking book, Managing the Resource Allocation Process: A Study of Corporate Planning and Investment, both helped spark Clay's insights into Disruptive Innovation and continues to offer key insights for firms. Joe and Clay also speak about the future of management, and offer tips for managers and entrepreneurs.
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Mar 4, 2019
29. Intercom, and Architecting a Company on Jobs to Be Done
Continuing our focus on Jobs to Be Done, Derek is joined by Intercom Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Des Traynor, to discuss how Intercom's model was built from the ground up with the framework. Be sure to take a look at Intercom's helpful JTBD resources.
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Feb 12, 2019
28. Wyzant - Strategic Restructuring Around Jobs To Be Done
In this episode, we talk with HBS alum Levi Belnap, VP of Business Development at Wyzant, a leading tutoring online marketplace, to discuss how implementing the Jobs To Be Done theory helped Wyzant identify a major market opportunity with tremendous scaling potential. Hear how Levi led the charge to institutionalize Jobs To Be Done in ways that helped Wyzant reshape its business model.
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Jan 29, 2019
27. How Technology is Shaping the Future of Sport: Angela Ruggiero and the Sports Innovation Lab
Angela Ruggiero, CEO and Co-Founder of the Sports Innovation Lab, talks to the Forum about the convergence of sports and technology. What are sports technologies? And how have they developed? Where are they heading? What does the fan of the future look like? What do they expect? Shaye Roseman asks Angela this and much more on the latest episode of The Disruptive Voice!
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Jan 17, 2019
26. What Really Creates Prosperity?
Efosa Ojomo and Karen Dillon, co-authors with Clayton Christensen on The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty, discuss the story behind their newly-released book, what it’s like to collaborate with Clay, and the substance of The Prosperity Paradox, in which they address the question, “Where does true and lasting prosperity come from?” With an eye towards low income countries, the conversation touches on different types of innovation, non-consumption, push versus pull strategies, a new way of thinking about infrastructure, business model development, and their framework for economic growth based on market-creation innovation and entrepreneurship.
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Dec 21, 2018
25. Getting the Categories Right: Applying theories to Venture Capital
Just what is the job of an investor? Forum member Curtis Arledge talks to Nate Redmond, Managing Partner at Alpha Edison, about adapting to changes within Venture Capital and the role of the investor. Nate explains his application of BSSE theories to locating and evaluating potential companies - unlocking opportunities in his terminology - as well as common mistakes investors make, their relationship to risk, and his vision of the power of entrepreneurship.
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Dec 3, 2018
24. Butterfly Network: Innovating at the Low End in Ultrasound
In this episode, Forum member and Research Associate Shaye Roseman is joined in the HBS studio by Darius Shahida, MBA class of 2019 and Chief of Staff at Butterfly Network. Through their conversation, we learn how Butterfly Network is aiming to disrupt and revolutionize the ultrasound industry. How is the new company approaching ultrasound imaging incumbents? What type of innovation lies behind their product, and how disruptive is it? And just how is Darius using theories from the BSSE course to guide Butterfly Network into the future? Tune in to find out and, as always, reach out to us with questions, comments, or suggestions on what you'd like to hear from The Disruptive Voice!
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Nov 20, 2018
23. Disruptive Innovation in Action: Reinventing Higher Education
We sat down with Dr. Paul LeBlanc, President of Southern New Hampshire University, to discuss disruptive innovation in higher education. Our conversation touches on Paul’s own background, students’ jobs to be done, competency-based learning, SNHU’s work in refugee camps, and other innovative initiatives currently on Paul’s radar screen. Those of our listeners hoping for shining examples of Clay Christensen’s theories in action or wanting to learn more about the future of higher education won’t be disappointed!
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Oct 12, 2018
22. Clay Christensen & Chet Huber: Reaching Critical Mass
Harvard Business School Professors Clay Christensen and Chet Huber sit down to discuss frameworks taken from Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise and applied to HouseSetter, the company Chet formed and operates as Chairman. Hear how BSSE frameworks like Emergent Strategy, Disruptive Innovation, Jobs to Be Done, and Purpose Branding have helped Chet steer his new venture.
Prof Christensen weighs in, and asks for help from you, the alumni of BSSE, to help him and Chet construct new theories for processes of scaling and growing user base.
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Jul 9, 2018
21. Bob Moesta: Spotting Non-Consumption
We sat down with Bob Moesta, the President and CEO of The ReWired Group, and pioneer of the Jobs To Be Done Theory. The topic: spotting and strategizing around non-consumption. Through this lens companies can see where they can enter a market and compete against...nothing!
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Sep 6, 2016
20. Q&A session with Professor Clayton M. Christensen
We've built this podcast on top of the ideas taught in Professor Clayton M. Christensen's signature course at the Harvard Business School, Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise (BSSE). This episode opens with Professor Christensen talking about the purpose of the BSSE course, and then transitions into a Q&A session with a group of alumni of the course, ranging from recent graduates to alumni who left HBS fifteen years ago. Topics include making predictions about the future of the electric car, how to handle acquisitions, how to think about being disrupted -- even when you are the disruptor!, using theory to make better decisions in your personal life, and the power of a good theory and common language.
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Aug 30, 2016
19. What if we viewed nonconsumption as a competitor with Efosa Ojomo (MBA 2015)
If nonconsumption were a company in Nigeria (or any other emerging market), it would almost certainly have a monopoly in many of the country's major industries. Yet investors and multinational companies often wait until there is a proven market before they are willing to invest. Senior researcher Efosa Ojomo published an article in Emerging Markets Business Review on this paradox, and in this episode offers tips on how to spot opportunities that seem uninteresting to many, but in fact offer the greatest potential for impact and exponential upside for the savvy investor.
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Aug 10, 2016
18. 3 most useful theories for a board member with Professor Steve Kaufman (MBA 1965)
During Steve Kaufman’s 14 years as CEO of Arrow Electronics (NYSE: ARW), the company completed over 50 acquisitions and grew from a $300 million US-centric corporation to a $12 billion global enterprise ranking within the top 200 companies on the Fortune 500 list. In 2005, Electronics Business magazine named Kaufman one of the ten most influential executives in the electronics industry over the past 25 years. In this episode, Professor Steve Kaufman shares with us some of the unique insights that teaching BSSE for over ten years has led him to understand, and what sort of help he has been able to offer the dozens of companies of varying stage, size, and industry that he advises as a board member.
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Jul 13, 2016
17. Agriculture: the once and future king of Nigeria with Folusho Olaniyan
Agriculture was once the leading industry in Nigeria, but decades of mismanagement caused the industry to decline. Today, the nation which once had a promising export crop business must import food in order to support its explosive population. Over the last decade, the Nigerian government has chosen to focus many of its resources on natural gas and oil production, which today accounts for more than 98% of export earnings even though it only accounts for less than 3% of the world's oil supply. In this episode of the Disruptive Voice, senior researcher Efosa Ojomo talks with Folusho Olaniyan, former Managing Director, United Trading Company (UTC) Nigeria Plc and CEO of Contact Consulting Nigeria, about what needs to change in order for Nigeria's agriculture industry to be rebuilt into a sustainable and successful enterprise.
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Jul 1, 2016
16. Reflections on Marginal Cost at U.S. Steel by Clay Christensen
BSSE students and alumni will know all too well why Professor Clayton Christensen was so excited to learn in 2015 that U.S. Steel was finally building a mini-mill at their Fairfield Works plant in Alabama. Several months later, however, the project was postponed. Does theory have an opinion about why U.S. Steel chose not to go forward with the construction of their electric arc furnace? In this episode, we share some brief reflections by Professor Christensen recorded in January.
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Jun 30, 2016
15. Is Uber disruptive?
Nothing like using a trick question to rile up five theory experts who have strong opinions about Uber, the latest Silicon Valley company to have its name verb-ified to describe most any entrepreneurial venture in the on-demand economy.
In this episode, we revisit Professor Clayton M. Christensen’s December 2015 article in Harvard Business Review, “What Is Disruptive Innovation,” with article co-author Rory McDonald, as well as four long-time collaborators with Professor Christensen: Innosight Managing Partner Scott D. Anthony, Christensen Institute co-founder Michael B. Horn, and Forum Senior Researchers Tom Bartman and Efosa Ojomo.
While this panel of theory experts share a strict set of guidelines to define what is and isn’t disruptive, their application of the theory to Uber varies quite widely. And yet — their outlook for the future varies much less than you might think.
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Jun 29, 2016
14. Using JTBD as an entrepreneur — Laura Day (MBA 2009)
Laura E. Day (MBA 2009) spent one year (2014–2015) at the Forum for Growth and Innovation studying the consumer robotics industry through the lens of the jobs-to-be-done theory and upon leaving the Forum became cofounder of smart device company Moti. In this episode of the Disruptive Voice, Laura uses her favorite theory to explain why the military application of robots is light years ahead of the consumer application (hint: it’s not because it’s easier technology to build!) and how she is using the various theories and tools of the BSSE course to ensure that her new product and start-up company are both successful and sustainable in their design and growth.
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Jun 28, 2016
13. The capabilities and limitations of the World Bank with Efosa Ojomo
The World Bank was founded in 1944 to facilitate post-war Reconstruction and today has grown to encompass five affiliated institutions dedicated to eradicating poverty worldwide. In this episode of the Disruptive Voice, senior researcher Efosa Ojomo uses the theories of BSSE to describe how the very same structures that allow the World Bank to have its extraordinary reach also constrain it from being able to fund or support other types of initiatives.
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Jun 27, 2016
12. BlackRock: Gregory Duggan and Ravi Umarji (MBA 2016) — BSSE Research Paper
Founded in 1988, BlackRock (BLK) has grown from being a provider of fixed income investment products into the preeminent global asset manager that it is today. Unlike its major competitors, BlackRock insisted on being an integrated platform and employed an acquisition strategy that we would call LBM (leverage my business model) to become a one-stop-shop for investment products. It would seem only natural, then, that BlackRock would likely employ a similar LBM-type integration in its recent acquisition of robo-advisory firm FutureAdvisor, but as 2016 MBA graduates Greg Duggan and Ravi Umarji studied this transaction through the lens of the theories of our course, BSSE, they came up with a different recommendation for the management team.
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Jun 26, 2016
11. Business Model Innovation with Tom Bartman
The value of and necessity for an organization to innovate its business model is rarely disputed in discussions of how to best survive in today’s rapidly changing economy, yet in an odd paradox, there is no standard definition in management thinking of what a business model is (or — as our research has taught us is equally if not more important — isn’t). In this episode of the Disruptive Voice, senior researcher Tom Bartman shares with us a number of insights that can be gained about an organization and its potential to successfully innovate its business model by applying Professor Christensen’s framework to the organization’s assets and activities.
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Jun 25, 2016
10. American Express: Joe Costa (JD/MBA 2016) and Jeff Cui (JD/MBA 2017) — BSSE Research Paper
“It’s a funny feeling to find yourself talking about JP Morgan and calling them 'low-end', but such is the nature of disruptive innovation: as a theory of competition, the labels it employs are relative, not absolute. In the credit card industry, American Express is the undisputed incumbent, leaving JP Morgan to be labeled as the low-end disruptor with their Chase Sapphire credit card, as noted by JD/MBA students Joe Costa (2016) and Jeff Cui (2017) in their final paper for BSSE, Clay Christensen’s course at the Harvard Business School.
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May 5, 2016
9. Stories from the ground — on building a market creating company in Ghana
Moringa is recognized as a miracle tree across the tropics worldwide for its nutritional, healing, and economic value, but farmers in Ghana lacked the processing capability to capitalize on this treasure. Enter MoringaConnect: co-founders Emily Cunningham and Kwami Williams have come together to build a portfolio of companies designed to help smallholder farmers realize their full potential.
Minga Foods turns superfood moringa into tea or a powder supplement. True Moringa harnesses the natural oils in moringa seeds to create superior cosmetic products.
In this episode, Cunningham and Williams talk about how they are unknowingly using the theories of disruptive innovation to build a company that we hope and believe will help smallholder farmers across Williams’ native Ghana rise out of poverty.
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Apr 12, 2016
8. BSSE research Paper | Square Capital — Caroline Anastasi and Lyndsey Billings
Launched at the end 2009 to bring payment processing to small businesses previously unserved by the incumbents, Square has grown to offer ancillary services to their 2M small business customers, and as such, has aptly been described as the operating system for small businesses. Square Capital, a lending platform, is one example of such a service: it leverages Square’s proprietary data to offer quick cash loans to its customers as well as provide a mechanism for repayment.
Professor Derek van Bever is joined by second year HBS students Caroline Anastasi and Lyndsey Billings in this episode of the Disruptive Voice to talk about what theory would suggest about Square’s latest move, and how the theories of BSSE (Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise) gave them a new perspective on how Square grew to become one of the first unicorns to IPO, and what they are doing to sustain their early success.
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Apr 5, 2016
7. Rethinking primary and secondary education in Nigeria with Michael Horn
Nigerian law mandates that students must attend school for nine years, but almost one out of every three primary age children is out of school, and roughly one out of four junior secondary age children is out of school. The reasons for this range widely — from economic reasons (though education is free, books/uniforms are not; families often need child labor) to supply issues (schools are prohibitively far; often inadequately staffed) — but the effect is the same: in the language of disruption theory, over 10M primary and secondary students are left as nonconsumers of education.
Michael B. Horn, education expert, long-time collaborator with Clay Christensen (and, full disclosure: my husband) joins Efosa Ojomo and I in this episode of The Disruptive Voice to frame this mass nonconsumption of education as an opportunity to innovate a legacy, educational system to better serve the needs of all Nigerians in today’s day and age.
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