HBR's 10 Must Reads on Innovation, Updated & Expanded (featuring "What Is Disruptive Innovation?" by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor, and Rory McDonald)

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Innovation Doesn’t Have to Be Disruptive

by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

The era of international travel began in the mid-19th century, with the golden age of transatlantic ocean-going. The British company Cunard, a leader in the industry, transported millions of immigrants from Europe to the United States around the turn of the 20th century. By the end of World War II it had emerged as the largest Atlantic passenger line, operating 12 ships to the United States and Canada as it captured the flourishing North Atlantic travel market in the first postwar decade.

That golden age came to an end with the advent of commercial jet flights. Whereas 1 million passengers crossed the Atlantic by boat in 1957, air travel caused that figure to fall ...