When Coffee and Kale Compete: Become great at making products people will buy

by Alan Klement

Unfortunately, many managers either don’t know or won’t accept this. Instead, they become worried when growth slows. They start making changes to their product in hopes of attracting more customers and increasing revenue; however, the effect is often the opposite. Management ends up making the product worse for existing customers. With some luck, a competitor won’t notice.[9] But luck will eventually run out. Another innovation will enter the market with a product that customers find more valuable (figure 3). Why? Because the entrant’s innovation cuts off all the baggage the incumbent added during management’s frantic attempt to push up all those visible figures. This is when customers begin to switch from the incumbent to the newcomer. So, goes the cycle of creative destruction.