Business Quote by Clayton Christensen
“There's usually some process by which a potentially great idea gets prostituted into something lacklustre, or by which the wrong idea gets put forward.”
About This Quote
Source Book: The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen, 1997
Great ideas can be diluted or replaced by inferior ones through flawed processes or poor decision making.
In simple terms: Good ideas can become weak or be replaced by bad ones.
Key Takeaway
Guard ideas with rigorous evaluation.
Themes
innovation
decisionmaking
quality control
Mood
cautious
analytical
critical
Type
advisory
strategic
When to use this quote
- product development
- strategic planning
- R&D management
- venture capital
- startup pitching
Key Concepts
diffusion of innovation
organizational inertia
idea selection
Questions to Reflect On
- How can we design processes that preserve idea quality?
- What safeguards prevent mediocre ideas from advancing?
A Different Perspective
The best ideas may still fail if the process is biased or rushed.
![“[S]ometimes, when you are a food person, the possible irrelevance of what you are doing doesn’t cross your mind until it’s too late. (Once, for example, when I was just starting out in the food business, I was hired by the caper people to develop a lot of recipes using capers, and it was weeks of…” quote by Nora Ephron](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d79/nora-ephron-1217_business_s-ometimes-when-you-are-a-food-person-th_980.jpg)
![“If the State does not acquire supremacy over [vast private] enterprises, it becomes their puppet, and they become the real State.” quote by Bertrand Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/bad/bertrand-russell-69_acquire_if-the-state-does-not-acquire-supremacy_1379.jpg)