Written over 30 years ago. The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen seems more relevant today than ever.
The gist: big, successful companies don't get disrupted or marginalized because they're stupid. They get put down because the very things that made them successful — their processes, their rigor, their layers of oversight — become webs of complexity that prevent them from moving when the ground shifts. They know what they need to do. It just doesn't happen.
We're watching it again. In real time. With AI.
The Fortune 500 is pouring billions upon billions into AI. Dedicated labs. Centers of excellence. Thoughtfully written internal memos. Steering committees stood up with the best of intentions. But as the stats tell us — we're still stuck in pilot purgatory.
It's not because the technology doesn't work. You see it proven every day now at a smaller scale. Open-source models running on people's phones and laptops. A digital employee, an agent, capable of contributing what an average team member can. Maybe that's a bit of hyperbole today — but the reality is coming fast.
So what's actually happening? The right use case, set up to transform and reap a quick ROI requires a web of approvals. Blockers appear and the champions of such great solutions give up and move on as the issue of the day consumes them. Then you see the multiple committees set up to greenlight and accelerate, become the enabler of another 14-month procurement cycle. The status quo lives, and even thrives.
Meanwhile, a 200-person company with a flat org and a bias toward action deploys the same capability in six weeks. Not because they're smarter. They're actually resource-poor by comparison. But there are no seven-layer toll gates to navigate.
Of course there's a downside. I'm sure we'll see headlines about important IP released to the ether by mistake. But there will also be massive success stories — and not just from AI behemoths or PE-backed startups. From the companies delivering the services we depend on every day that can effectively leverage this. They'll have flat structures. Few silos. Leaders who can push things forward without a 30-page slide deck and $3 million in consulting fees.
What Christensen highlighted with IBM, with Kodak, with the steel industry — the pattern remains the same. The behemoth doesn't respond because it's hooked on the very architecture it's been surviving on, even thriving, for years. So very few are going to vote to make the change. And since everything depends on messaging from the top, you may get a pilot. You may get a task force. But they get lapped.
To the mid-market: you have an opportunity. Rise up.
Few tokens were harmed in this writing. ✌️