Clayton M. Christensen

David S. Duncan

Karen Dillon

Taddy Hall

The foremost authority on innovation and growth presents a path-breaking book every company needs to transform innovation from a game of chance to one in which they develop products and services customers not only want to buy, but are willing to pay premium prices for. How do companies know how to grow? How can they create products that they are sure customers want to buy? Can innovation be more than a game of hit and miss? Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen has the answer. A generation ago, Christensen revolutionized business with his groundbreaking theory of disruptive innovation. Now, he goes further, offering powerful new insights. After years of research, Christensen has come to one critical conclusion: our long held maxim—that understanding the customer is the crux of innovation—is wrong. Customers don’t buy products or services; they "hire" them to do a job. Understanding customers does not drive innovation success, he argues. Understanding customer jobs does. The "Jobs to Be Done" approach can be seen in some of the world’s most respected companies and fast-growing startups, including Amazon, Intuit, Uber, Airbnb, and Chobani yogurt, to name just a few. But this book is not about celebrating these successes—it’s about predicting new ones. Christensen contends that by understanding what causes customers to "hire" a product or service, any business can improve its innovation track record, creating products that customers not only want to hire, but that they’ll pay premium prices to bring into their lives. Jobs theory offers new hope for growth to companies frustrated by their hit and miss efforts. This book carefully lays down Christensen’s provocative framework, providing a comprehensive explanation of the theory and why it is predictive, how to use it in the real world—and, most importantly, how not to squander the insights it provides.

The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice

Competing Against Luck

A "detective story" that delivers key insights for any businessperson asking the questions: who really are our customers, why do we lose them, how do we regain them? Mogul William Goldman's zinger about the movie business - "nobody knows nothing" - can easily be said today about companies and their customers. Despite big data and a mind-boggling array of analytical tools, companies still grasp at straws when trying to understand who their customers are; why they buy their products and services - or don't; why they lose them; and how to regain them. In an entertaining detective story, David Scott Duncan tells the tale of Tazza, a fictional regional chain of Boston-based cafes trying to go big time. The only problem: sales are declining at several key stores and they can't figure out why. The cast of characters include Cate Forrest, Tazza's CEO, Alex Baker, a "market detective," Jordan Sims, a young computer whiz at Tazza, and Ed Amato, the "Mayor" of Tazza-their most loyal customer-who has stopped visiting their stores. Eventually, Jordan discovers why the "Mayor" has fired Tazza, a revelation that leads to the "a-ha moment" that enables the company to get its ship in order. Through this parable, Duncan shows that until a company understands why customers "hire" and "fire" them, they literally know nothing. Ending with practical tools to help anyone learn craft of understanding customers, The Secret Life of Customers will help anyone get in tune with what customers want, today and in the future.

A Fable about Cracking Market Mysteries

The Secret Lives of Customers

Scott D. Anthony

Introducing the Four Components That Make Innovation Repeatable Even the best-performing companies eventually stall. Sustaining momentum—and remaining a great growth company—takes a system. Scott Anthony and David Duncan call this system a “Growth Factory.” They’ve seen it work in a small set of elite companies that have created environments where innovation is both repeatable and reliable, not relegated to an off-site or isolated division that has no real connection to the organization’s future. In this HBR Single, Anthony and Duncan draw on their extensive experience working with these growth factory organizations—most notably Procter & Gamble and Citigroup. They highlight the four main components that make innovation repeatable and reliable, citing real examples of what P&G, Citi, and even their own firm, Innosight, have gone through to stay firmly on a path toward growth despite huge challenges. They offer practical advice on how you can put their system into action in your own company—whether it’s a large multinational or a small start-up. HBR Singles provide brief yet potent business ideas for today’s thinking professional. They are available digitally at HBR.org and through the Kindle Store, the iBookstore, and other ebooksellers.

David S. Duncan

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