Quotes from Clayton M. Christensen

on—the value network framework would predict that firms similar to Quantum and Seagate are not likely to build market-leading positions in flash memory. This is not because the technology is too difficult or their organizational structures impede effective development, but because their resources will become absorbed in fighting for and defending larger chunks of business in the mainstream disk drive value networks in which they currently make their money.

how you allocate your own resources can make your life turn out to be exactly as you hope or very different from what you intend.

remember that it is changes in the slope of the platform, not the level of the platform, that create shareholder value at an above-average rate.

The problem is, lifestyle demands can quickly lock in place the personal resource allocation process.

Using flawed segmentation schemes, they often introduce products that customers don't want, because they aim at a target that is irrelevant to what customers are trying to get done.

The type of person you want to become—what the purpose of your life is—is too important to leave to chance. It needs to be deliberately conceived, chosen, and managed. The opportunities and challenges in your life that allow you to become that person will, by their very nature, be emergent.

Competitiveness is far more about doing what customers value than doing what you think you're good at.

In reality, spinning out is an appropriate step only when confronting disruptive innovation.

We all are vulnerable to the forces and decisions that have derailed too many.

the hallmark of a great manager is the ability to identify the right person for the right job, and to train his or her employees so that they have the capabilities to succeed at the jobs they are given.

likeness, a commitment, and a metric—is the most reliable way I know of to define for yourself what your purpose is, and to live it in your life every day.

You can talk all you want about having a clear purpose and strategy for your life, but ultimately this means nothing if you are not investing the resources you have in a way that is consistent with your strategy. In the end, a strategy is nothing but good intentions unless it's effectively implemented.

If you begin to feel that the likeness you have sketched out for yourself is not right—that this is not the person you want to become—then you must revisit your likeness. But if it becomes clear that it is the person you want to become, then you must devote your life to becoming that person.

if the decisions you make about where you invest your blood, sweat, and tears are not consistent with the person you aspire to be, you'll never become that person.

when children are ready to learn, we need to be there. And second, we need to be found displaying through our actions, the priorities and values that we want our children to learn.

Research has shown, in fact, that the vast majority of successful new business ventures abandoned their original business strategies when they began implementing their initial plans and learned what would and would not work in the market. 9

This principle—that sacrifice deepens our commitment—doesn't just work in marriages. It applies to members of our family and close friends, as well as organizations and even cultures and nations.

Given that sacrifice deepens our commitment, it's important to ensure that what we sacrifice for is worthy of that commitment, as the church was for me and Annie. Perhaps nothing deserves sacrifice more than family—and not just that others should sacrifice for you, but that you should sacrifice for your family

They planned to fail early and inexpensively in the search for the market for a disruptive technology. They found that their markets generally coalesced through an iterative process of trial, learning, and trial again.

Strategy almost always emerges from a combination of deliberate and unanticipated opportunities. What's important is to get out there and try stuff until you learn where your talents, interests, and priorities begin to pay off. When you find out what really works for you, then it's time to flip from an emergent strategy to a deliberate one.

Rita G. McGrath and Ian C. MacMillan, "Discovery-Driven Planning," Harvard Business Review, July–August, 1995, 4–12.

The logic is, for example, "I can invest in my career during the early years when our children are small and parenting isn't as critical. When our children are a bit older and begin to be interested in things that adults are interested in, then I can lift my foot off my career accelerator. That's when I'll focus on my family." Guess what. By that time the game is already over.

Companies stumble for many reasons, of course, among them bureaucracy, arrogance, tired executive blood, poor planning, short-term investment horizons, inadequate skills and resources, and just plain bad luck.

But there is not a single billing code for patient adherence or improvement, or for helping patients stay well.