The Disruptive Voice

Five years ago, Darius Shahida , a member of the HBS Class of 2019, joined us in the podcast studio to discuss how Butterfly Network , a disruptive startup where he was employed as Chief Growth Officer, was working to revolutionize the ultrasound industry. Now, as the company's Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Business Development Officer, he joins his former BSSE professor, Derek van Bever , to r...

In this episode, Amy Edmondson , sharing insights from her new book, Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well , reminds listeners, "The most successful among us have not failed less often than the rest of us. They've failed more often – right kind of wrong failures." Hosted by Scott Anthony , the two engage in a fascinating conversation covering a myriad of topics, including the origin of...

The promise of artificial intelligence is immense and companies that view AI as an enabler of corporate transformation can reap potentially enormous benefits in terms of both value creation and growth. In this panel discussion, Freddy Solis hosts his Innosight colleague and co-leader in the company's global AI practice, Shari Parvarandeh , along with renowned thought leaders in management and info...

Higher education has long been on an unsustainable trajectory, with rising costs - and subsequent debt passed on to students - hindering the ability of many to get ahead. In this episode of The Disruptive Voice, education author and researcher, Michael Horn , hosts fellow Harvard Business School alumnus Scott Pulsipher , President of  Western Governors University (WGU). Among many topics, the two...

Last June, Efosa Ojomo and Sandy Sanchez were on the podcast to discuss the process of market creation - discovery, distribution, and democratization - and specifically, as it applied to the creation of a market for solar energy in Nigeria . In this new episode, they return to the recording studio to share with us specific examples of four companies that are getting it right.  SunFi , co-founded b...

Arthur Brooks teaches a popular course at Harvard Business School called "Leadership and Happiness." One important underpinning of the course is that science can help us to better understand what will actually make us happier – and Arthur has worked hard to incorporate these concepts into his own life. Recently, he teamed up with  Oprah Winfrey to write " Build The Life You Want: The Art and Scien...

The Business Model Framework draws an important distinction between a company's Priorities (that is, its Value Proposition and Profit Formula) and its Capabilities. Regarding the latter , which are more effective drivers of corporate innovation – Processes or Resources? The answer to this question, of course, depends on an organization's circumstances and strategic goals. Specifically, in circumst...

"In our view, the crux of the problem is that investments in different types of innovation affect economies (and companies) in very different ways – but are evaluated using the same (flawed) metrics. Specifically, financial markets – and companies themselves – use assessment metrics that make innovations that eliminate jobs more attractive than those that create jobs." This quote comes from the 20...

Clayton Christensen, in a  2012 Tedx Talk , while drawing on insights from  How Will You Measure Your Life , said, "The way we invest our time and energy and talents (sometimes) causes us to implement a strategy that we wouldn't at all plan to pursue." Now, his co-author on that book, Karen Dillon , has partnered with Rob Cross to write  The Microstress Effect: How Little Things Pile Up And Create...

Nigeria is home to the largest energy deficit in the world. What can be done to address the striking level of energy poverty in the country? Clayton Christensen used to say that good theory helps us to explain the world but that great theory helps us to transform it. With this in mind, co-author with Clay of  The Prosperity Paradox , Efosa Ojomo , joins host Sandy Sanchez to consider the applicati...

Radiology touches around 80% of all hospital and health system visits, impacting nearly every specialty in medicine. However, the incumbent radiology IT system infrastructure places the promise and power of AI out of reach for practitioners. Though radiology has historically been on the cutting edge of technological advancements in medicine, e.g. in terms of digitization, radiology is now stuck in...

In this episode, Craig Mackintosh , Head of User Experience Research at LinkedIn , reflects on how the Jobs To Be Done framework has been used at the company to provide strategic focus. He joins  David Duncan , co-author with Clayton Christensen on Competing Against Luck and author of The Secret Lives of Customers , to discuss how the team at LinkedIn has drawn on Jobs Theory to unlock innovation...

Christina Wallace wrote The Portfolio Life: How To Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger Than Your Business Card , in part, to explain the zig zagging path of her own life, a trajectory that has been markedly different than the more linear and predefined paths often followed by those in earlier generations. The accelerating pace of change, along with one societal disrupt...

After a shocking accident left Rebecca Fogg with a partially amputated hand, she found herself faced with the sudden and daunting challenge of recovering, both physically and psychologically, from the trauma. Though her background at the time was not in medicine, she hired – in the language of the Jobs To Be Done framework – the pursuit of scientific knowledge to help heal and to make progress in...

Currently, over 75% of American households don't have access to high quality, affordable, and unbiased financial advice. Anders Jones co-founded Facet in order to make these financial planning services available to a large population of people who don't qualify to receive them under existing incumbent business models. In other words, Facet is a prime example of a new market disruption, with the co...

In his book,  Undisruptable: A Mindset of Permanent Reinvention for Individuals, Organizations, and Life , Aidan McCullen writes about how, centuries ago, sailors would set out to sea with maps labelled with the Latin words  hic sun dracones - here be dragons - which meant that they didn't know much - if anything - about the uncharted waters and unexplored lands that awaited them. In today's volat...

In the introduction of The Innovator's Dilemma , first published in 1997, Clayton Christensen wrote that the book "is about well-managed companies that have their competitive antennae up, listen astutely to their customers, invest aggressively in new technologies, and yet still lose market dominance." Years later, the dilemma is as relevant and as challenging as ever. In this episode of The Disrup...

Jobs Theory, when correctly applied, has the potential to be a huge unlock for organizations that have yet to realize the full value from their agile transformations. In order to benefit from the full potential of the Jobs To Be Done framework, a systems lens is required in its application. In this episode, Innosight 's Alasdair Trotter joins host Katie Zandbergen to discuss the challenges and opp...

In an earlier episode of The Disruptive Voice, Pontus Sirén discussed the Jobs methodology and how it relates to customer centricity. Companies exist to address customer problems, i.e. their Jobs To Be Done – and the first critical step for any innovator is to identify a good problem to solve. In this episode, Pontus' Innosight colleague, Shari Parvarandeh , joins him to not only delve deeper into...

This is a true story of one man, his four children, four mentors, and five skills. It began when Bob Moesta 's now-grown children moved out of the family home. Bob and his wife decided to clean things out a bit and during that process, in their attic, Bob came across eight hundred and forty-seven notebooks containing information on everything that he had worked on throughout his career! As he star...

Many listeners will know that Clay had a homemade "Anomalies Wanted" sign in his office at Harvard Business School – it was the backbone of his approach to research and theory building, as he worked to strengthen and refine his frameworks over the years. Many past guests on this podcast, when asked about what made Clay such a powerful thinker and teacher, responded saying that he was humble, that...

When you receive a brochure in the mail from your local symphony or visit a website for your regional orchestra, what do you typically see? You're very likely going to read flowery language about the beauty of the art and the skill of the artists, accompanied by photos of the conductor and the musicians on the stage. You probably won't see the audience or how the experience might impact them. The...

Founding Dean at Jefferson College of Population Health , Dr. David Nash , recently co-authored a book entitled " How Covid Crashed The System: A Guide To Fixing American Health Care ", in which he and Charles Wohlforth draw parallels between flying a plane and delivering healthcare services. Leaning into the analogy, they liken the American healthcare system to an airplane crash – and they're the...

One of the items you'll find on Booster Co-Founder & CEO Frank Mycroft 's desk is a BSSE placemat, highlighting the frameworks that are covered in the course, which Frank took at Harvard Business School in 2012. Since its founding in 2015, Booster has built an energy-agnostic, modular, mobile network in which the company knows the energy demands of its customers, has the ability to procure the rig...

Clayton Christensen and Rita McGrath , one of the top management thinkers in the world, spent over two decades as both colleagues and friends. To this day, the concept of Discovery-Driven Planning, first widely introduced in a 1995 HBR article by Rita and Ian MacMillan , is taught in the Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise course at Harvard Business School. In this insightful conversat...