An innovation will get traction only if it helps people get something that they're already doing in their lives done better.

The transformation at the corporate level was achieved by selling off business units in old markets and by creating new business units to pursue the new opportunities. But the individual business units themselves within those transformed corporations were almost inert to change.

Watching how customers actually use a product provides much more reliable information than can be gleaned from a verbal interview or a focus group.

Innovation simply isn't as unpredictable as many people think. There isn't a cookbook yet, but we're getting there.

The reason why it is so difficult for existing firms to capitalize on disruptive innovations is that their processes and their business model that make them good at the existing business actually make them bad at competing for the disruption. 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.

Disruptive innovations create jobs, efficiency innovations destroy them.

Purpose must be deliberately conceived and chosen, and then pursued.