What Clayton Christensen Meant by Disruption

Today we’re welcoming back our first-ever guest on the Outthinker Podcast, Scott Anthony—Senior Lecturer at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and one of the world’s leading voices on innovation and transformation. Formerly a senior partner at Innosight, the consultancy founded by Clayton Christensen, Scott has spent decades helping global organizations navigate disruption, build strategic resilience, and create new engines of growth. He’s also the author of eight acclaimed books, including The First Mile, Dual Transformation, and his newest work, Epic Disruptions: 11 Innovations That Shaped Our Modern World.

In this discussion, we uncover how disruption has driven human progress for centuries—long before the dawn of Silicon Valley. From the cannon fire that toppled ancient empires to the printing press that democratized knowledge, Scott shows that the forces behind disruption are anything but new. Through stories spanning from gunpowder to generative AI, he reveals how these enduring patterns continue to reshape industries, technologies, and societies today.

Listeners will walk away with a richer understanding of how to spot and harness disruption rather than fear it. Scott explains how leaders can use history as a practical playbook—learning to make bold, informed decisions in fast‑changing environments. Whether you’re scaling a business or steering an enterprise through transformation, this is a conversation about seeing beyond the moment to shape what comes next.

In this episode we cover:

• What Clayton Christensen really meant by “disruptive innovation”
• Why the term is so often misused—and how to tell sustaining vs disruptive innovation apart
• The “ghosts” that haunt incumbents: past trauma, rigid habits, and identity fears that block change
• What leaders can learn from the printing press, steel mini mills, and the iPhone
• How to use history as a lens for seeing disruption before it strikes

Episode Timeline:

00:00 — Highlight from today’s episode
 01:10 — Introducing Scott Anthony and today’s topic
 04:00 — From consulting to academia: finding no “safe spaces” in the era of AI
 09:00 — Defining strategy: “a set of choices to achieve a designed aim”
 10:00 — Setting the record straight on Clayton Christensen’s theory
 16:30 — Bethlehem Steel, emotional ghosts, and leadership through disruption
 21:00 — From gunpowder to AI: how patterns keep repeating
 25:00 — The printing press and the unintended consequences of innovation
 30:00 — The hero’s journey of innovation—from Julia Child to Steve Jobs
 37:00 — Spotting modern disruptors: AI, robotics, and additive manufacturing
 41:00 — Where to learn more from Scott Anthony

Additional Resources:

Book Website: https://www.epicdisruptions.com
Scott Anthony’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottdanthony/

Thank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.

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