A Clayton Christensen–inspired look at long-term innovation, disruption, and how not to confuse motion for meaning
Introduction: Why Tactics Can’t Save a Flawed Business Model
In the world of sheet music publishing—whether sacred, educational, choral, or instrumental—it’s easy to focus on what’s directly in front of you:
- A new title to promote
- A social media campaign to launch
- A trade show to attend
- A website to redesign
These are all tactics. Important? Yes. But strategic? Not necessarily.
As Clayton Christensen famously said,
“The mistake managers often make is focusing on what they do, not why customers hire them.”
If you’re not clear on why your organization exists in the marketplace, who you’re serving, and what job your customers are hiring you to do, no amount of tactics will create sustainable growth.
Let’s explore the difference between tactics and strategy in the sheet music world—and why mixing them up leads to missed opportunities, confused customers, and vulnerable businesses.
Defining the Terms: The Christensen Lens
In Christensen’s framework, strategy starts with understanding the “job to be done.”
In sheet music, the job isn’t “buying a piece of music.” The job is:
- A music teacher needing something meaningful for their spring concert
- A choir director needing an anthem that lifts the congregation
- A student needing a solo piece that will build confidence and technique
Strategy is your long-term theory about how to consistently solve that job—better than anyone else.
Tactics are the actions you take to implement that theory.
So if your strategy is flawed—if your theory about the customer or the market is wrong—then great tactics only get you to the wrong destination faster.
A Real-World Comparison: Strategy vs. Tactic in Sheet Music
| Strategy | Tactic |
|---|---|
| Build a catalog focused on underrepresented composers for educational choirs | Launch a “Voices of Change” series with social media rollout |
| Become the go-to sacred publisher for small church choirs | Publish seasonal anthems in SAB and 2-part formats with rehearsal tracks |
| Lead in digital delivery and on-demand print | Invest in a platform that enables secure PDF downloads and part printing |
| Position as an editorial-first brand that helps conductors program with confidence | Write long-form product descriptions and blog posts with context and programming suggestions |
In every case, the strategy is a hypothesis about what matters to your audience. The tactic is a test of that hypothesis.
Why Confusing the Two Is Dangerous
In sheet music publishing, we often conflate:
- Marketing campaigns with market positioning
- Product launches with long-term direction
- Design updates with differentiation
Here’s where this gets dangerous:
1. We optimize the wrong things.
You spend time A/B testing email subject lines, while ignoring that your product line hasn’t adapted to changing performance trends (like shorter rehearsals or flexible voicings).
2. We over-focus on competitors instead of customers.
You watch what other publishers are doing and copy their tactics—without asking whether your core audience is hiring you for the same reasons.
3. We get stuck in an outdated value chain.
Clayton Christensen warned that disruption often comes from outside the incumbent’s playbook. If you believe your value lies in distributing paper scores, but your customers are hiring you to make rehearsal easier and faster, you’re vulnerable to platforms that offer audio tracks, virtual choirs, or licensing bundles—even if their scores are inferior.
Strategy in Practice: Discovering the Job to Be Done
Let’s apply the Jobs to Be Done theory to a common customer:
A high school choir director planning a spring concert.
What is the job they’re hiring your sheet music to do?
- Engage teenage singers without overwhelming them
- Align with a concert theme or cultural moment
- Rehearse efficiently with limited class time
- Showcase the ensemble’s abilities to parents and administrators
- Find music that is meaningful, appropriate, and emotionally resonant
If your strategy is to “provide new choral titles every season,” but none of them address those needs, then you’re selling features, not fulfilling jobs.
Your strategy must begin with empathy. Understand the context, constraints, and aspirations of your customer. Then align your tactics accordingly.
Tactical Execution with Strategic Intent
Tactics should serve the strategy—not replace it. When used correctly, they create feedback loops that help you refine your strategy over time.
Let’s revisit our earlier example:
Strategy:
“We help small church choirs prepare beautiful music with limited time and resources.”
Tactics:
- Create rehearsal tracks and downloadable PDFs
- Publish mostly 2-part and SAB works
- Offer programming guides for the liturgical year
- Price affordably and license generously
- Write emails that speak to volunteer choir directors, not professional musicians
Now every action, post, and product is in service of a clear, differentiated strategic position.
As Christensen taught, when your strategy aligns with a real job to be done, you build loyalty and create value that’s hard to copy.
Testing Strategy with Discovery-Driven Planning
In a fast-changing market, even the best strategies need to be tested.
Rita McGrath (a collaborator of Christensen’s) expanded on this with discovery-driven planning—a close cousin to Christensen’s ideas. You test your assumptions, adapt based on feedback, and evolve your offering in real-time.
In sheet music, that might mean:
- Tracking performance licenses by voicing, season, and ensemble size
- Interviewing conductors after a piece is performed
- Testing new pricing models for digital formats
- Monitoring YouTube and TikTok trends to understand what repertoire gets shared and why
Strategy is a theory. Tactics are experiments. Your job is to learn fast.
Final Thought: Don’t Confuse Motion for Momentum
In the sheet music business, it’s easy to stay busy:
- Launching new titles
- Updating product pages
- Running ads
- Attending conferences
But if all of that isn’t anchored to a clear strategy—if you don’t know what job you’re being hired to do—then you’re just moving.
Christensen’s legacy teaches us that innovation doesn’t start with ideas. It starts with understanding what your customer is really trying to accomplish.
And once you know that? Strategy becomes obvious.
Tactics become sharper.
And growth becomes sustainable.
That's what we do. That's Blue Pen.