The Innovator’s New Dilemma

Research in business is an unforgiving area. It is a bit like the IT department in an organization. You are rarely credited with innovation in your insights, but when things go wrong, the world is quick to pounce on you. That trend that you highlighted, those observation you made, the data that you brought forth, all will have that one in a millionth error. Unfortunately, such errors do not go unnoticed often.

Sometimes, the most questionable research comes from surveys conducted by the likes of Nielsen and ORG-MARG. Take the case of the ‘Best B schools’ in India. They start of pretty well in the top 20 rankings cluster, but horribly beat commonsense and general awareness when they move to the next clusters. Further up, If McKinsey is the big daddy of consulting, there are the thought leaders who blast their reports publicly with expertise of their own and convincingly prove why the consulting giant has been blurred in its vision.

All said and done, I would never expect someone to question a celebrated thought leader –Clayton Christensen, an established name at Harvard. Having read his books, it all made sense to me. Add to it the thought provoking insights he conveyed about disruption. The research that he has undertaken, in an era before Google, to arrive at his findings is simply stunning. For the rest of us – the commoners – a lifetime may not be enough to replicate ten percent of his work. The innovator’s Dilemma became a bestseller towards the end of the nineties and tech-business leaders worldwide had the dreaded word on their mind all the time – disruption.

Along comes Jill Lepore, professor of American history at Harvard University and in a rather rude fashion, takes on Clayton’s theory of disruption. Read the article here - THE DISRUPTION MACHINE

The big guns of management get involved, some for and some against. Clayton himself talks to Bloomberg and tries to get his ideas across – as good as defending your deeds in a courtroom. Read the article here - Clayton Christensen Responds to New Yorker Takedown of 'Disruptive Innovation'

How do you thrive in this business? With information becoming accessible everywhere, anytime and across devices, the next critic is around the corner. You really have to go that extra mile ..err.. those hundred extra miles so make sure that your research is highly robust. Boy, It is not going to be an easy career anymore.

Of course, you can always substantiate with facts and silence the critics. But to every critic armed with knowledge of the universe in a box called Google, proving your research right all the time is going to be a herculean task. There are too many loopholes to fix. No research is ever 100 percent accurate and none shall be spared either.