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Clayton Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma is one of the more popular business texts of the past 20 years. Published in 1997, it argues that the reason even very successful companies can fail is they prove unable to react to "disruptive innovation" (a term Christensen is credited with coining). This refers to when new technologies or business models that come along and respond to customers' unstated or future needs.

Christensen has applied his thinking to a number of different fields in his work, including higher education with 2011's The Innovative University.

"Historically there has not been a technological core at post-secondary," Christensen told a packed house in the Potter Auditorium. "Disruption has not been possible in the past; now you see it happening in an active way."

Christensen, the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, came to speak at the Rowe School of Business on July 26. (He was originally scheduled to speak in the fall but had to reschedule). He titled his presentation "The Innovator In You," sharing some of the challenges that individuals and organizations face when they try and experiment with something new.

"How can I be sure when I develop an innovative idea that the customers are actually going to want to buy my product or service?" he asked. "Right now, it's a crapshoot. Even for an amazing marketing company like P&G [Proctor & Gamble]… when they launch a project, it's only successful 15 per cent of the time."

What's crucial, he says, is for organizations to be diligent in understanding the tasks or "jobs" in people's lives that align with the products or services they can offer.

For close to an hour, Christensen guided attendees through a free-flowing overview of his thinking around disruption and innovation, as well as answering questions from the crowd. Afterwards, at the invitation of the Rowe School, he also had a brief meeting with Dal President Richard Florizone, who was in attendance.