Prosperity Paradox


Global poverty is one of the world’s most vexing problems. From education to healthcare, infrastructure to eradicating corruption, the vast majority of solutions rely on trial and error. Essentially, the plan is often to identify areas that need help, flood them with resources, and hope to see change over time.

But hope is not an effective strategy.

In The Prosperity Paradox, Clayton M. Christensen, Efosa Ojomo, and Karen Dillon reveal a paradox at the heart of most approaches to solving poverty. While noble, current solutions are not producing consistent results, and in some cases, have exacerbated the problem. At least twenty countries that have received billions of dollars’ worth of aid are poorer now.

Applying the rigorous and theory-driven analysis he is known for, Christensen and his co-authors suggest a better way. The right kind of innovation not only builds companies—but also builds countries. The Prosperity Paradox identifies the limits of common economic development models, which tend to be top-down efforts, and offers a new framework for economic growth based on entrepreneurship and market-creating innovation. Christensen, Ojomo, and Dillon use successful examples from America’s own economic development, including Ford, Eastman Kodak, and Singer Sewing Machines, and shows how similar models have worked in other regions such as Japan, South Korea, Nigeria, Rwanda, India, Argentina, and Mexico.

The ideas in this book will help companies desperate for real, long-term growth see actual, sustainable progress where they’ve failed before. But The Prosperity Paradox is more than a business book; it is a call to action for anyone who wants a fresh take for making the world a better and more prosperous place.

What do we mean by “prosperity”? An excerpt from The Prosperity Paradox.

Authors

  • Clayton Christensen
    Clayton Christensen

    Clayton Christensen was the acclaimed Kim. B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the co-founder of the Christensen Institute. The Economist called his theory of Disruptive Innovation the most influential business idea of the early 21st Century. He's the author of The Innovator’s Dilemma and The Innovator’s Solution, Disrupting Class, The Innovator's Prescription, The Innovative University, and most recently, How Will You Measure Your Life?

  • Efosa Ojomo
    Efosa Ojomo

    Efosa Ojomo is a senior research fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, and co-author of The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty. Efosa researches, writes, and speaks about ways in which innovation can transform organizations and create inclusive prosperity for many in emerging markets.

  • Karen Dillon
    Karen Dillon

    Clayton Christensen and I co-authored three books together, including the New York Times best-seller How Will You Measure Your Life?, Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice, and The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty, which focuses on the important role of innovation in the process of creating prosperity across the globe. I now join my co-author on that book, Efosa Ojomo, on our continued mission to understand and share how innovation can create new markets.