This course is part of the Entrepreneurship & Innovation and Strategy track.
Introduction to Disruptive Strategy
 

Disruptive Strategy

$1,750
Next 6-week session starts November 1st
Harness the power of disruptive innovation to craft winning strategies.
6
weeks
5-6
hours per week
5
modules
Self-Paced
with regular deadlines

 This course earns you a Certificate of Completion from HBS Online. What you earn.

Overview
Syllabus
Enrollment
Stories
FAQs

Key Concepts

Become fluent in disruptive innovation theory
Assess new opportunities and potential threats
Discover jobs to be done and develop frameworks to better understand customer needs
Acquire techniques for executive-level strategy development
Organize for innovation and maintain a disruptive scope
Gain confidence articulating complex viewpoints

Who Will Benefit

Align your resources, processes, and financial strategy to position your business for growth.
I have gotten an incredible wealth of knowledge and theories that are ready to apply. With every minute of learning, my company was better off and was setting a course for success.
Andrzej Buks
Vice President at Dakota Guardian Trust
Assess opportunities and learn how to better determine what profitability looks like as your industry evolves.
I feel like I have an unfair advantage now knowing what I've learned from this course. It has given me confidence and clarity in my decisions, and I can already see the material impact of applying this model and mindset to our business and our culture.
Dave Nelson
Head of Sales at WegoWise
Discover what causes customers to buy your products and why, and predict when disruption will happen.
The course equipped me with new ways to think about problems, products, businesses, and just everything in life.
Daniella Patrick
Innovation Lab Product Manager at Accenture

What You Earn

Certificate of Completion

Certificate of Completion

Boost your resume with a Certificate of Completion from HBS Online

Earn by: completing this course

Certificate of Specialization

Certificate of Specialization

Prove your mastery of entrepreneurship and innovation and strategy

Earn by: completing any three courses within this subject area to earn a Certificate of Specialization

Syllabus

5 Modules, 30-35 Hours
Download full syllabus
Introduction

Lenses on the World

Adopt a strategic mindset and learn how to generate and articulate your strategic questions.

Highlights

Framing Your Strategic Question
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Applying Lenses on the World to You

Featured Exercises

  • Generating Your Strategic Question
5-6
hrs
Module 1

Aligning with Innovation and Disruption

Identify the three types of innovation, predict when they'll occur, and harness disruption to position your business for growth.

Highlights

Honda Motor Company
CircleUp
The Google IPO and WRH's Dilemma
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Introduction
  2. Three Types of Innovation
  3. Some Finer Details About Disruption
  4. WR Hambrecht and the Google IPO
  5. Applying Innovation and Disruption to You

Featured Exercises

  • Team Discussion: Blockbuster’s Demise
  • Team Project: The New Age of Financial Advice?
5-6
hrs
Module 2

Discovering Customer Jobs to be Done

Focus on what causes your customers to buy your products and why, and achieve differentiation, better margins, and avoid disruption.

Highlights

The Jobs to be Done Pyramid
Disney California Adventure
Minute Clinic
Building Around the Job to be Done
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Understand Jobs to be Done
  2. Case Practice
  3. The Godrej Group
  4. Applying Jobs to be Done to You

Featured Exercises

  • One-on-One Discussion & Interview Assignment: Discovering Customer Jobs to be Done
  • Team Discussion: Innovation in Yogurt
5-6
hrs
Module 3

Organizing for Innovation

Determine what your organization can and can't do, and align your resources, processes, and profit formula to develop an innovative culture and position your business for growth.

Highlights

Nypro's Dilemma
Charles Schwab
EMC
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Organization Capabilities
  2. Nypro Manufacturing
  3. Case Practice
  4. Applying Organizing for Innovation to You

Featured Exercises

  • Brainstorming for Final Paper: Examine Your Organization’s Resources, Processes, and Profit Formula to Foster Growth and Success in the Future
5-6
hrs
Module 4

Maintaining a Disruptive Scope

Build a strong intuition to “skate” to where profit will be as your industry evolves and determine which operations are critical to be done in-house and which you can outsource.

Highlights

Basis of Competition
The Music Industry
MediaTek's New Business Model
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Determining the Scope of the Organization
  2. Refining Your Strategy
  3. MediaTek
  4. Applying Maintaining a Disruptive Scope to You

Featured Exercises

  • Reflection: Determining Ways in Which Your Organization Could Use a More Integrated or Specialized Strategy
  • Reflection: Discovering the Scope for Your Organization
5-6
hrs
Module 5

Managing the Strategy Development Process

Effectively balance the deliberate and emergent strategy processes to unlock innovation within your organization and determine which “type” of money will empower new business ideas to flourish.

Highlights

The Resource Allocation Process
Netflix
Finding the Winning Strategy
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. The Strategy Development Process
  2. The Phases of Business Development
  3. OnStar
  4. Applying Managing the Strategy Development Process to You

Featured Exercises

  • Reflection: Examining How to Align Your Organization’s Profit Formula and Stated Strategy
  • Team Discussion: Identifying “Hardened” Companies
Conclusion

Reflecting on Disruptive Strategy

Explore how to apply what you learned in Disruptive Strategy tomorrow, next week, or over the next year.

Highlights

Reflecting on Disruptive Strategy
ShowHide Details

Featured Exercises

  • Individual Assignment: Final Paper
Free E-Book

So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur: How to Get Started

In this guide, you’ll learn about what characterizes a successful entrepreneur, how to decide if entrepreneurship is right for you, and what skills you need to thrive.

Our Difference

Disruptive Strategy will equip you with the skills and techniques to develop executive-level strategy, organize for innovation, and discover customer jobs to be done.
Stay active by engaging in a new activity every three to five minutes and applying your knowledge through group exercises and an individual final paper.
Stay active by engaging in a new activity every three to five minutes and applying your knowledge through group exercises and an individual final paper.
Get social by collaborating with a global community of peers before, during, and after your course. Learners who successfully complete an HBS Online program will be added to the HBS Online Community's Official Networking Group and gain exclusive access to events and other networking opportunities.
Get social by collaborating with a global community of peers before, during, and after your course. Learners who successfully complete an HBS Online program will be added to the HBS Online Community's Official Networking Group and gain exclusive access to events and other networking opportunities.
Immerse yourself in real-world, case-based examples brought to life by industry-leading experts from companies like WR Hambrecht & Co., Google, EMC, and CircleUp.
Immerse yourself in real-world, case-based examples brought to life by industry-leading experts from companies like WR Hambrecht & Co., Google, EMC, and CircleUp.

About the Professors

Rory McDonald
Disruptive Strategy

Thai-Hi T. Lee (MBA 1985) Associate Professor of Business Administration

Clayton Christensen
Disruptive Strategy

Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School

Dates & Eligibility

Starting
Nov
01
6 Weeks  $1,750
Application deadline October 23
View weekly calendar
Apply Now
Starting
Jan
24
6 Weeks  $1,750
Application deadline January 16
View weekly calendar
Apply Now
  • Free application
  • No documentation required
  • Confirmation within one week

All applicants must be at least 18 years of age, proficient in English, and committed to learning and engaging with fellow participants throughout the course.

Learn about bringing this course to your organization.

Learner Stories

76%
found HBS Online to be more impactful than other online business programs
I have already applied so much of what I have learned. My strategy and message for my team and how we communicate with our customers has begun to shift.
Paige Peterson
Sales Manager, Western US at Coravin, Inc.
As a consultant running a boutique management and technology consulting practice, I have already started applying what I have learned in Disruptive Strategy towards my own business.
David Bergin
Chief Technology Officer at Nantucket Technology Partners
* Source: 2022 surveys and course data
 
All FAQs

Disruptive Strategy FAQs

Participants in Disruptive Strategy are eligible for a Certificate of Completion from Harvard Business School Online.

Participants are expected to fully complete all coursework in a thoughtful and timely manner. This will mean meeting each week’s course module deadlines and fully answering questions posed therein. This helps ensure your cohort proceeds through the course at a similar pace and can take full advantage of social learning opportunities. In addition to module and assignment completion, we expect participation in the social learning elements of the course by offering feedback on others’ reflections and contributing to conversations on the platform. Participants who fail to complete the course requirements will not receive a certificate and will not be eligible to retake the course.

More detailed information on course requirements will be communicated at the start of the course. No grades are assigned for Disruptive Strategy. Participants will either be evaluated as complete or not complete.

You will have access to the materials in every prior module as you progress through the program. Access to course materials and the course platform ends 60 days after the final deadline in the program.

At the end of each course module, you will be able to download a PDF summary highlighting key concepts introduced in the course. At the end of the program, you will receive a PDF compilation of all of the module summary documents. We hope the module summary documents will serve as a helpful resource after you finish the course.

Once you've earned your Certificate of Completion, list it on your resume along with the date of completion:

Harvard Business School Online
Certificate in Disruptive Strategy with Clayton Christensen
[Cohort Start Month and Year]

List your certificate on your LinkedIn profile under "Education" with the language from the Credential Verification page:

School: Harvard Business School Online
Dates Attended: [The year you participated in the program]
Degree: Other; Certificate in Disruptive Strategy with Clayton Christensen
Field of Study: Leave blank
Grade: "Complete"
Activities and Societies: Leave blank

Description:
Disruptive Strategy with Clayton Christensen is a 6-week, 30-hour online certificate program from Harvard Business School. Disruptive Strategy helps students become fluent in disruption theory and gain confidence in articulating complex viewpoints, apply strategic frameworks to assess new opportunities and potential threats, and acquire techniques for executive-level strategy formulation and team management. The program was developed by leading Harvard Business School faculty and is delivered in an active learning environment based on the HBS signature case-based learning model.

Harvard Business School Online is saddened by the loss of acclaimed teacher, scholar, and innovator Clayton Christensen. Professor Christensen’s online Disruptive Strategy course has engaged thousands of learners and will continue to reach individuals worldwide. HBS Online worked closely with Professor Christensen on the development of the course and is honored to deliver Disruptive Strategy as part of his legacy.

 

Related Programs

7 Courses

Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB)

CLIMB enables new and experienced leaders to ignite their careers with a combination of vital and forward-looking business skills, self-reflection, and an immersive cohort-based learning experience with a diverse global network.

1 year, 5-9 hrs/week
Apply by December 1$15,000 (four installments of $3,750)Credential 

Entrepreneurship Essentials

Professor William Sahlman

Master a proven framework for building and financing new ventures, and make your entrepreneurial dreams a reality.

4 weeks, 6-8 hrs/week
Apply by January 29$1,750Certificate 

Design Thinking and Innovation

Srikant Datar

Uncover innovative solutions to your most challenging business problems.

7 weeks, 6-8 hrs/week
Apply by January 2$1,750Certificate 

Negotiation Mastery

Professor Michael Wheeler

Secure maximum value for your organization through a mastery of negotiation techniques.

8 weeks, 4-5 hrs/week
Apply by November 6$1,750Certificate