Innosight Books

By Mark W. Johnson and Josh Suskewicz 

Transformational business visionaries like Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos possess a range of innate qualities that make them extraordinary, but what truly sets them apart is their ability to turn vision into action. Lead from the Future introduces the concept of “future-back” thinking, where leaders develop strategies by starting with a vision of the future and working backward to the present. This contrasts with the traditional “present-forward” mindset, which focuses on incremental change based on current conditions. The authors emphasize the importance of long-term vision and proactive leadership in driving innovation and transformation. By using future-back thinking, leaders can navigate uncertainty, identify breakthrough opportunities, and create a bold strategic roadmap that connects today’s actions with future success.

By Scott Anthony, Clark Gilbert, and Mark Johnson 

Emerging technologies like AI and new business models such as asset-sharing platforms threaten to disrupt market leaders and reconfigure existing value chains. What if leaders could tap into the underlying forces behind these kinds of changes to power new waves of growth for their companies? Dual Transformation lays out an approach to reposition today’s business to maximize its resilience while at the same time creating tomorrow’s new growth engine. By leveraging difficult-to-replicate assets and capabilities, companies can create transformative new business models and gain advantage. With case studies leading Organizations like Adobe, Aetna, and J&J, Dual Transformation will guide executives through the journey of becoming the next version of themselves.

By Mark W. Johnson 

Shrinking S&P 500 lifespans, digital disruption, and pressure on once-reliable business models mean that it’s no longer enough to roll out better products and services. As the success of Amazon, Netflix, and others show, the future belongs to the serial business model innovators. But successful incumbents face unique challenges in creating the new – as the very capabilities that make them successful actively inhibit exploration and innovation. Reinvent Your Business Model shows the way to get there. It dispels the common misconceptions about what a business model is and isn’t – and provides a practical framework for how one really works.

By Scott Anthony, Natalie Painchaud, Andy Parker, and Paul Cobban 

The greatest source of untapped energy is the innovation potential that exists inside organizations around the world. Leaders have tried countless ways to liberate and harness this energy—treks to Silicon Valley, global contests, huge investments in innovation capabilities. Yet most organizations admit they have struggled to create truly innovative cultures. Success requires focusing on changing people’s daily habits—and then making sure they stick and scale. Eat, Sleep, Innovate​ lays out a system level way to encourage and enable people to think and act beyond the status quo. Drawing on groundbreaking research into habit change and organizational culture, the books explore tools, language, and inspiration to overcome obstacles and empower to be their most curious and creative.

By Clayton Christensen 

One of the most influential business books of all time, innovation expert and Innosight cofounder Clay Christensen explores how successful companies can do everything “right” and still lose their market leadership or even fail as new, unexpected competitors rise and take over the market. The core idea is that businesses prioritize sustaining innovations—incremental improvements to existing products—because they serve current customers and drive profits. However, disruptive innovations, which start small and target niche markets, can eventually reshape entire industries. Companies struggle with these disruptions because they don’t initially seem profitable or relevant. Christensen shows how firms can embrace disruption by fostering innovation, even when it threatens their existing business.

By Clay Christensen, David Duncan, Karen Dillon, and Taddy Hall 

For many companies, innovation is still hit or miss. They spend millions compiling the data to figure out what their customers want, but they often achieve only modest incremental innovations while completely missing the mark on the breakthrough innovations critical to long-term sustainable growth. Our book offers a game-changing look at how companies can develop and market products and services that customers actually want and need. The answer can be found in the “jobs to be done” theory of innovation. This approach provides a powerful way to understand the causal mechanism of customer behavior, and that’s the most fundamental driver of innovation success.

By Clayton M. Christensen and Michael Raynor, with a foreword by Scott D. Anthony 

Building on the acclaimed The Innovator’s Dilemma, this book offers strategies for creating and managing disruptive innovations. It provides a blueprint for balancing disruptive and sustaining innovations, ensuring companies don’t just improve existing products but also explore new growth areas. It provides practical frameworks for better understanding customer needs and designing products that meet real demands, guidance for identifying overlooked or underserved markets and positioning innovations where competition is low. It also explores the importance of resource allocation and leadership.