Episode #74: Clayton Christensen's New Theory with Karen Dillon

Karen Dillon is co-author of Clayton Christensen's new book, Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice” (HarperCollins, October 2016), a groundbreaking book with the potential to reframe industries. It is based on a simple yet profound idea put forward by Christensen in “The Innovator’s Solution”: customers don’t buy products and services; they hire them to do a job. And understanding which jobs your customers need done is key to innovation success.

The former editor of Harvard Business Review (HBR), Karen has long chronicled the successes and failures of businesses and their leaders.

Currently a contributing editor to HBR focused on the topics of leadership, managing people, managing yourself and entrepreneurship, Dillon has worked closely with some of the world’s greatest thought leaders, including Clayton Christensen, Michael Porter, Vijay Govindarajan, Daniel Isenberg and A.G. Lafley.

A talented, award-winning writer, she is also a passionate, engaging speaker – and is especially skilled at personalizing the themes of her books to make them actionable and relevant to each audience.

Dillon is co-author of several best-selling titles, including “How Will You Measure Your Life?” (HarperCollins, May 2012), with Christensen and James Allworth. The book, born out of a series of powerful lectures and seminars by Christensen, began with an article conceived by Dillon for HBR.

Topics Discussed:

- Her new book, “Competing Against Luck”

- What is a ‘job to be done’

- Identifying customer jobs to be done

- “The story of the milkshake!”

- Looking through a different lens, to improve innovation.

- The anxiety of customer switch and buying patterns

- Customer journey mapping and more

- Prioritising jobs to be done ("which jobs should I build a product around?")

Show Notes:

Books:

1) Competing Against Luck - Christensen & Dillon: https://amzn.to/2DfR46q

2) The Innovator's Dilemma - Christensen: https://amzn.to/2DexZSc

3) measureyourlife.com - Karen’s story and her first book.

4) Karen's Twitter: twitter.com/kardillon

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