I guess for entrepreneurs, this abstract is enough to do catalytic innovation-Pradyot
Disruptive Innovation for Social Change
Clayton M. Christensen, Heiner Baumann, Rudy Ruggles, Thomas M. Sadtler
Harvard Business Review
December 2006 Issue
Reprint # R0612E
Abstract:
Countries, organizations, and individuals around the globe spend aggressively to solve social problems, but these efforts often fail to deliver.
Misdirected investment is the primary reason for that failure. Most of the money earmarked for social initiatives goes to organizations that are structured to support specific groups of recipients, often with sophisticated solutions.
Such organizations rarely reach the broader populations that could be served by simpler alternatives. There is, however, an effective way to get to those underserved populations.
The authors call it “catalytic innovation” Based on Clayton Christensen’s disruptive-innovation model, catalytic innovations challenge organizational incumbents by offering simpler, good-enough solutions aimed at underserved groups.
Unlike disruptive innovations, though, catalytic innovations are focused on creating social change. Catalytic innovators are defined by five distinct qualities.
First, they create social change through scaling and replication.
Second, they meet a need that is either overserved (that is, the existing solution is more complex than necessary for many people) or not served at all.
Third, the products and services they offer are simpler and cheaper than alternatives, but recipients view them as good enough.
Fourth, they bring in resources in ways that initially seem unattractive to incumbents.
And fifth, they are often ignored, put down, or even discouraged by existing organizations, which don’t see the catalytic innovators’ solutions as viable.
As the authors show through examples in health care, education, and economic development, both nonprofit and for-profit groups are finding ways to create catalytic innovation that drives social change.
For more info, please buy Harvard Business Review, Dec 2006 Issue
- Indian Entrepreneur Mindset - June 19, 2011
- Presentation on Innovation Engineering at SlideShare - April 4, 2011
- Entrepreneurs and VCs can use Innovation Engineering - February 5, 2011
I haven’t read this yet, but I suspect the examples will be similar to Prahalad’s bottom-of-the-pyramid, or David Bornstein’s How to Change the World.
Christensen’s Disruptive Innovation model does apply to corporates, which tend to have blinding frames of reference. And I agree with each of the five propositions. However, the problem with presuming social change is that after years of hype about ‘social entrepreneurship’ there are still too few innovative ideas around. Social innovators lack the massive finances necessary to tackle the challenges of scale and distribution for substantial social change, while public institutions lack the ideas.
I am a great fan of Clayton Christensen. The “Innovators Solution” is a good book and my guess is that catalytic innovation uses the same thinking adapted to the social context.
If there are any entrepreneurs in India who think they can do catalytic innovation or for that matter disruptive innovation and think that I could help I would be interested in having a conversation.