Innovation Cultivation: A Conversation with Clayton Christensen

2/2/13 - I spent the best part of my afternoon yesterday in Clayton Christensen’s office at the Harvard Business School discussing innovation one-on-one with the great master of disruptive innovation theory. Such a generous and brilliant man! I plan to publish a more detailed summary of the conversation, but for now I will say that we shared ideas about how innovation can/should/must respond to two seismic shifts impacting today’s context:

1) Market changes that provide access to cheaper capital (Capitalist Dilemma)
2) Social “ecosystem” changes (due to innovation) that impact how “generative innovation” skills are cultivated in children and adults (“Innovation Paradox” and Disrupting Class).

In response to both of these changes, innovation must be applied to a longer term view, as opposed to the short term rewards/ROI that innovation is usually associated with. How do businesses, governments and institutions generally, reward innovation that works towards innovation capabilities in an unknown future?

Stay tuned for more notes from this great conversation coming soon in The Sandbox.