Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice

by Clayton M Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, David S. Duncan

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062435613
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/04/2016
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	207,137
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

CLAYTON M. CHRISTENSEN (1952–2020) was the Kim B. Clark Professor at Harvard Business School, the author of nine books, a five-time recipient of the McKinsey Award for Harvard Business Review’s best article, and the cofounder of four companies, including the innovation consulting firm Innosight. In 2011 and 2013 he was named the world’s most influential business thinker in a biennial ranking conducted by Thinkers50.

TADDY HALL is a principal with the Cambridge Group and a leader of Nielsen’s Breakthrough Innovation Project. In these capacities, he helps senior executives create successful new products and improve innovation processes. He also works extensively with executives in emerging markets as an advisor to the nonprofit Endeavor.

KAREN DILLON is the former editor of the Harvard Business Review and coauthor of the New York Times bestseller How Will You Measure Your Life? She is a graduate of Cornell University and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. In 2011 she was named by Ashoka as one of the world’s most influential and inspiring women.

DAVID S. DUNCAN is a senior partner at Innosight. He’s a leading thinker and advisor to senior executives on innovation strategy and growth, helping them navigate disruptive change, create sustainable growth, and transform their organizations to thrive for the long term. He is a graduate of Duke University and earned a PhD in physics from Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Why You Should Hire This Book ix

Section I An Introduction to Jobs Theory

Chapter 1 The Milk Shake Dilemma 3

Chapter 2 Progress, Not Products 21

Chapter 3 Jobs in the Wild 47

Section 2 The Hard Work-and Payoff-of Applying Jobs Theory

Chapter 4 Job Hunting 69

Chapter 5 How to Hear What Your Customers Don't Say 95

Chapter 6 Building Your Résumé 123

Section 3 The Jobs to Be Done Organization

Chapter 7 Integrating Around a Job 151

Chapter 8 Keeping Your Eye on the Job 177

Chapter 9 The Jobs-Focused Organization 197

Chapter 10 Final Observations About the Theory of Jobs 221

Acknowledgments 235

Index 249

Editorial Reviews

This game-changing book is filled with compelling real world examples, including from inside Intuit. Jobs Theory has had —and will continue to have —a profound influence on Intuit’s approach to innovation. It just might change yours, too. — Scott Cook, Co-founder & Chairman of Intuit

Clayton Christensen’s books on innovation are mandatory reading at Netflix. — Reed Hastings, Co-founder and CEO of Netflix

Competing Against Luck offers fresh thinking on how to get innovation right. Clayton Christensen and his coauthors offer a compelling take on how to truly understand customers by the progress they’re seeking to make in their lives. Bravo! — Muhtar Kent, CEO of The Coca-Cola Company

Clay Christensen and his co-authors have presented critical business thinkers and doers with a breakthrough theory that will change how leaders approach innovation by reverse engineering from a high value and focused customer job to be done. I have read it cover to cover—and will ask my top team to do the same. — Ron Frank, IBM

[Competing Against Luck] will likely become part of the thoughtful founder’s strategy arsenal. True to its unpretentious name, jobs theory is disarmingly simple… “What job is our customer trying to accomplish?” stands as one of those great business questions that companies deploy to stimulate creative juices at the start of meetings. But Competing Against Luck doesn’t just introduce a tool, it also lays out a program. — Inc. Magazine

The Theory of Jobs to Be Done has the essential trait of any good management theory: Once explained, it seems glaringly obvious. — Philip Delves Broughton, Wall Street Journal

In an age of big data and hyper segmentation, Christensen’s thinking is refreshing and clarifying. This book will relieve you of tired marketing conversations and invite you into worlds of new and ultimately, defining possibilities. Competing Against Luck is a must read for anyone working on developing or sustaining a distinctive brand. — Maureen Chiquet, former CEO of Chanel and author of forthcoming Beyond the Label

As a long-time fan of Clay Christensen, I was eager to read Competing Against Luck — and it didn’t disappoint. This book has the potential to change the way you view innovation. Engaging and well-written, Christensen and his co-authors caused me to stop and really think about how Khan Academy is growing. I highly recommend it. — Sal Khan, Founder & CEO, Khan Academy

Competing Against Luck is an excellent primer on the both the theory, and on the applications of this theory to many areas of business. A fun and quick read - and a set of ideas that will be useful when you negotiate with vendors or plan your next program. — Inside Higher Education

From the Publisher

As a long-time fan of Clay Christensen, I was eager to read Competing Against Luck — and it didn’t disappoint. This book has the potential to change the way you view innovation. Engaging and well-written, Christensen and his co-authors caused me to stop and really think about how Khan Academy is growing. I highly recommend it.

Sal Khan

Clayton Christensen’s books on innovation are mandatory reading at Netflix.

Reed Hastings

The Theory of Jobs to Be Done has the essential trait of any good management theory: Once explained, it seems glaringly obvious.

Philip Delves Broughton

In an age of big data and hyper segmentation, Christensen’s thinking is refreshing and clarifying. This book will relieve you of tired marketing conversations and invite you into worlds of new and ultimately, defining possibilities. Competing Against Luck is a must read for anyone working on developing or sustaining a distinctive brand.

Maureen Chiquet

Competing Against Luck offers fresh thinking on how to get innovation right. Clayton Christensen and his coauthors offer a compelling take on how to truly understand customers by the progress they’re seeking to make in their lives. Bravo!

Muhtar Kent

Competing Against Luck is an excellent primer on the both the theory, and on the applications of this theory to many areas of business. A fun and quick read - and a set of ideas that will be useful when you negotiate with vendors or plan your next program.

Inside Higher Education

[Competing Against Luck] will likely become part of the thoughtful founder’s strategy arsenal. True to its unpretentious name, jobs theory is disarmingly simple… “What job is our customer trying to accomplish?” stands as one of those great business questions that companies deploy to stimulate creative juices at the start of meetings. But Competing Against Luck doesn’t just introduce a tool, it also lays out a program.

Inc. Magazine

Clay Christensen and his co-authors have presented critical business thinkers and doers with a breakthrough theory that will change how leaders approach innovation by reverse engineering from a high value and focused customer job to be done. I have read it cover to cover—and will ask my top team to do the same.

Ron Frank

This game-changing book is filled with compelling real world examples, including from inside Intuit. Jobs Theory has had --and will continue to have ---a profound influence on Intuit’s approach to innovation. It just might change yours, too.

Scott Cook