Disruptive Projects

Read this nice interview with Clayton Christensen in MIT Sloan Management Review (Spring 2009). The article, 'Good days for Disruptors', has some really interesting quotes. I was thinking, what they imply for instance for product lifecycle management, knowledge management or enterprise 2.0 projects in the company I work for.

  • "The breakthrough innovations come when the tension is greatest and the resources are most limited."
  • "The model of disruption say that a company's direction of innovation is always driven by where the margins are ..."
  • "Every disruption has three components to it: a technological enabler, a business model innovation and a new commercial ecosystem."
  • "In general, cost is driven by overhead, which is driven by complexity."
  • "While cost is driven by complexity, quality is driven by integration. It's when we don't integrate things correctly that problems fall through the cracks."

Now not all projects have to be disruptive of course. But look at the last quote. This fits well on e2.0, KM en PLM projects, doesn't. PLM projects are about defining (product development) processes, accompanying working methods, content and systems. Indeed, if you don't integrate things correctly, you basically don't have anything. Or you have very busy (stressed) people filling the holes.

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