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I’m finally getting around to reading The Innovator’s Dilemma from Clayton Christensen, though I’ve heard the branded term enough to understand the general gist of the book.

Two pretty choice quotes that I’ve liked a lot from just the first few pages of the book:

There are times at which it is right not to listen to customers, right to invest in developing lower-performance products that promise lower margins, and right to aggressively pursue small, rather than substantial, markets.

And a similar, though perhaps more descriptive, quote:

First, disruptive products are simpler and cheaper; they generally promise lower margins, not greater profits. Second, disruptive technologies typically are first commercialized in emerging or insignificant markets. And third, leading firms’ most profitable customers generally don’t want, and indeed initially can’t use, products based on disruptive technologies. By and large, a disruptive technology is initially embraced by the least profitable customers in a market.