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“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong,” H.L. Mencken wrote. The hedgehog who knows just one big thing cannot master the unruliness of competitive enterprise. In the conduct of business and other human affairs, we need the fox’s knowledge of many little things. But neither should we look to scholars, savants, or big data for nostrums that effectively combine this multifarious knowledge. There is no ducking case-by-case judgments and anxious leaps of faith. That’s why the life of the innovator is such a thrill, the rewards of successful enterprise are so great, and success is never forever.
Amar Bhide and Pankaj Ghemawat in QZ on how Christensen’s ideas are far more useful to budding entrepreneurs rather than corporate executives to predict how technology innovation will go and make strategic decisions based on that.
The interesting aspect to all of this is that there is clear need for corporate executives to understand where the threats and opportunities are coming from and how to respond to them. The challenge is that in some cases it is impossible to create a strategy that will make this happen. As in all of life, organisations will have to die one day.