QuoteProject
The mistake that makes launching a venture expensive is when you try to make a disruptive technology so good that it can compete on a quality basis with an established product.
Clayton M. Christensen
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Focusing too much on perfecting a new technology can hinder its success against established products.

In this quote, Clayton M. Christensen emphasizes that startups often make the mistake of over-engineering their disruptive technologies to match the quality of existing products, which can lead to unnecessary expenses and delays. Instead, he suggests that new ventures should prioritize innovation and uniqueness over direct competition on quality, allowing them to carve out their market niche more effectively.

Themes

Disruptive TechnologyVentureQualityInnovationCompetition

In practice

Example use cases

In a startup pitch, to emphasize the importance of innovation over perfection.

More from Clayton M. Christensen

There is no single right answer or path forward, but there is one right way to frame the problem.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
Understanding motivation is one of the most important things we can do in our lives, because it has such a bearing on why we do the things we do and whether we enjoy them or not.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
Companies, in fact, are specifically organized to under-invest in disruptive innovations! This is one reason why we often suggest that companies set up separate teams or groups to commercialize disruptive innovations. When disruptive innovations have to fight with other innovations for resources, they tend to lose out.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
There is no evidence that success in business will make us happy people or allow us to have happy families.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
By definition, big data cannot yield complicated descriptions of causality. Especially in healthcare. Almost all of our diseases occur in the intersections of systems in the body.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
The breakthrough innovations come when the tension is greatest and the resources are most limited. That's when people are actually a lot more open to rethinking the fundamental way they do business.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead

Similar quotes

Every time a new technology comes along, we feel we're about to break through to a place where we will not be able to recover. The advent of broadcast radio confused people. It delighted people, of course, but it also changed the world.
James GleickRead
If you're as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?
Brian KernighanRead
Technology is, in many respects, an enabler for an open, transparent society. But it's also an enabler for supervision to a completely unforeseen degree. And for commercialising personal space to an unforeseen degree.
Margrethe VestagerRead
One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing is that you lose control. It's just as bad as using a proprietary program. Do your own computing on your own computer with your copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietary program or somebody else's web server, you're defenceless.
Richard StallmanRead
I know there's a farmer out there somewhere who never wants a PC and that's fine with me.
Bill GatesRead
Safety is not just about trying really hard and being really careful. You have to design technology that makes it possible for a computer to be safe.
Jensen HuangRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.