RE: blog posting (parable of innovation)

[Tony G Horava <thorava@uottawa.ca>]

This is an intriguing tale, and it reminds me of an article I 
read by David Lewis: "The Innovator's Dilemma: Disruptive Change 
and Academic Libraries" Library Administration & Management; 
Spring 2004; 18, 2 He is commenting on the book by Clayton 
Christenson in the late 90s called The Innovator's Dilemma that 
was seen as a bible of innovation by many CEOs. Lewis draws a 
distinction for libraries between sustaining technologies (doing 
well what you've always done before) and disruptive technologies 
(new products designed before markets are defined- requiring 
higher risk; needing to reinvent service models) and the 
implications for libraries. The latter corresponds nicely to the 
innovative company that dared to take the long-term view.

Tony


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Joseph Esposito
Sent: May 3, 2011 6:19 PM
To: Liblicense-L@Lists. Yale. Edu
Subject: blog posting (parable of innovation)

I just wrote up a parable of innovation in publishing that was
told to me about 20 years ago. The link is here:

http://bit.ly/kG7X7D

The person who told me this story was the CEO of a major
publishing house.  A terribly difficult guy, but very smart.

Joe Esposito