In Thinkers 50 Innovation: Breakthrough Thinking to Take Your Business to the Next Level, Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove examine the key insights of several of the world’s most influential thought leaders with regard to perhaps the most challenging business imperatives: innovation.

They pose this question to Clayton Christensen: “What exactly is disruptive innovation?”

“It has a very specific meaning. It is not a breakthrough innovation that makes good products better. It has a very specific definition, and that is that it transforms a product that historically was so expensive and complicated that only a few people with a lot of money and a lot of skill had access to it. A disruptive innovation makes the product so much more affordable and acceptable that a much larger population has access to it.”

There are products that are constantly improved but have always been affordable to almost anyone. That was not true of automobiles until Henry Ford introduced the Model T in 1908. You get the idea.

To learn more about Clayton Christensen and his work, please click here.

Here is a direct link to the volumes authored by Crainer and/or Dearlove.