The Critical Path

#19: The hiring and firing of milkshakes and candy bars

December 29, 2011 at 8:00AM • 60 minutes

Horace talks with Bob Moesta, a pioneer of Job To be Done research. We go over the theory and process of understanding what products are really hired to do and ask why this understanding is so hard to come by. In a discussion rich with examples from multiple industries Bob illustrates how marketing, design and engineering are all dancing around the question of how product should be developed. Could the universally accepted compartmentalization of corporate functions be a root cause to product failure?

#18: Who's Paying for My Lunch?

December 21, 2011 at 12:00PM • 57 minutes

Dan and Horace ponder why some companies are more mysterious than others. We ask whether transparency and simplicity of business models is a sign of strength or weakness. We compare the measurement, creation and capture of value and why we should celebrate the mortality of businesses.

#17: Working with Clay

December 21, 2011 at 11:30AM • 1 hour 2 minutes

Horace interviews James Allworth, author, Fellow at the Forum for Growth and Innovation at Harvard Business School, and a former Apple employee. James describes what it's like working with Clayton Christensen and takes us on a journey through the latest academic and applied research being conducted on the theories of disruptive innovation.

#16: The Existence Proof

December 14, 2011 at 12:00PM • 58 minutes

Horace interviews Dan Benjamin on the motivation, basis of competition and trajectory of the 5by5 network. By studying where podcasting came from and where it's going we provide proof of existence of disruption in "big media".

#15: The Theater of Disruption

December 12, 2011 at 12:45PM • 1 hour 4 minutes

Horace talks to actor Hoon Lee about the challenges of disrupting the creative arts in general, and theater in particular. By observing the changes in the performing arts we look to how mainstream media will change in response to technological and economic pressures.

#14: The Super-platform ecosystem

November 24, 2011 at 6:30AM • 58 minutes

In the first of the Critical Path Interviews, Horace discusses the disruptive potential of cloud computing with Randy Bias. Is the new ecosystem the coupling of devices with backend cloud APIs? How do we calibrate new business models based on tightly coupled super-platforms.

#13: The Innovation Anomalies

November 16, 2011 at 10:00AM • 56 minutes

Dan and Horace talk about innovations in emerging countries related to mobile service and how that might foreshadow changes in the developed world. We also discuss why some industries seem to be exempt from disruptive innovation and suggest that there are boundaries societies set to value re-definition.

#12: Back to the Future

November 2, 2011 at 4:00PM • 57 minutes

Dan and Horace talk about the tension between relying on data and using intuition to make strategy decisions. We also apply this dual approach to think through the next evolution of user interaction and the jobs we might hire mobile computers to do for us.

#11: The Thermonuclear Option

October 26, 2011 at 11:00AM • 58 minutes

Dan and Horace talk about patents and litigation as a means of defending innovation. We go way back to the beginning of the last century and talk how patent wars have played out in the past and how they affected the fortunes and fates of innovators.

#10: The Means of Production

October 19, 2011 at 11:00AM • 56 minutes

Dan and Horace talk about Apple's quarter with an eye toward the operational commitments being made. We cover the cost of store openings, data center purchases and machinery used in manufacturing iOS devices. By tracking capital expenses we can get a clue about where Apple wants to go.