How Will You Measure Your Life?

How Will You Measure(ˈmeZHər) Your Life?

By Clayton Christensen

Before I published The Innovator’s(ˈinəˌvādər) Dilemma(diˈlemə, dīˈlemə), I got a call from Andrew(ˌandro͞o) Grove(grōv), then the chairman(ˈCHe(ə)rmən) of Intel(ˈintel). He had read one of my early papers about disruptive(disˈrəptiv) technology, and he asked if I could talk to his direct reports and explain my research and what it implied for Intel. Excited, I flew to Silicon(-kən,ˈsiləˌkän) Valley(ˈvalē) and showed up at the appointed(əˈpoin(t)əd) time, only to have Grove say, “Look, stuff has happened. We have only 10 minutes for you. Tell us what your model of disruption(disˈrəpSHən) means for Intel.” I said that I couldn’t—that I needed a full 30 minutes to explain the model, because only with it as context(ˈkänˌtekst) would any comments about Intel make sense. Ten minutes into my explanation, Grove interrupted: “Look, I’ve got your model. Just tell us what it means for Intel.”

I insisted(inˈsist) that I needed 10 more minutes to describe how the process of disruption had worked its way through a very different industry, steel(stēl), so that he and his team could understand how disruption worked. I told the story of how Nucor and other steel minimills had begun by attacking the lowest end of the market—steel reinforcing bars, or rebar(ˈrēˌbär)—and later moved up toward the high end, undercutting the traditional steel mills(mil).

When I finished the minimill story, Grove said, “OK, I get it. What it means for Intel is…,” and then went on to articulate(ärˈtikyələt) what would become the company’s strategy for going to the bottom of the market to launch the Celeron processor.

I’ve thought about that a million times since. If I had been suckered(ˈsəkər) into telling Andy Grove what he should think about the microprocessor business, I’d have been killed. But instead of telling him what to think, I taught him how to think—and then he reached what I felt was the correct decision on his own.

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https://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life