The Prosperity Paradox:
How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty

By: , and

November 29, 2018


Prosperity Paradox
By Clayton Christensen, Efosa Ojomo, and Karen Dillon

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.

Clayton Christensen is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and is the architect of Disruptive Innovation. Clay was named the World’s Most Influential Business Management Thinker in 2011 and 2013.

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 is a senior research editor on the Global Prosperity team. In January 2019, she and co-authors Clayton Christensen and Efosa Ojomo will publish 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.