Clayton M. Christensen is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business
Administration at the Harvard Business School, with a joint appointment in the
Technology & Operations Management and General Management faculty groups. He is
best known for his study of innovation in commercial enterprises. His first
book, The Innovator's Dilemma, articulated his theory of disruptive
innovation. Christensen is also a co-founder of Innosight, a management
consulting and investment firm specializing in innovation.
Early life Christensen was born in Salt Lake City,
Utah, the second of eight children. He holds a B.A. with highest honors in
economics from Brigham Young University, a M.Phil. in applied econometrics and
the economics of less-developed countries from Oxford University, an MBA
with high distinction from the HBS, and a DBA from the HBS. While at Oxford,
Christensen, who stands 6 feet 8 inches tall, was the starting center for the
men's basketball team. Career
Before joining the faculty of Harvard Business School in 1992, Christensen
worked for the Boston Consulting Group and then served as chairman and
president of Ceramics Process Systems Corporation, a firm he co-founded with
several MIT professors in 1984. In 2000, he founded Innosight LLC, a consulting
and training firm which describes itself as "focusing on idea generation,
strategy development, commercialization, and innovative process development." In
2005, together with his colleagues at Innosight, he launched Innosight
Ventures, a venture firm focused on investing in India. In 2007, after
incubating the processes for six years, Christensen co-founded Rose Park
Advisors LLC, an investment company which applies his research as an
investment strategy. He serves on the board of directors of
Tata Consultancy Services, Franklin Covey, and Vanu, Inc.
He worked as a consultant and project leader with the Boston Consulting Group
and was instrumental in founding the firm's manufacturing strategy consulting
practice. He took a leave of absence from BCG to serve as a White House
Fellow as an assistant to U.S. Transportation Secretaries, Drew Lewis
and Elizabeth Dole. At HBS, he currently teaches an elective
course he designed called "Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise",
which teaches managers how to build and manage an enduring, successful company
or transform an existing organization. Christensen received an Extraordinary
Teaching Award by the MBA class of 2010. He also teaches in many HBS executive
education programs. Christensen was awarded a full professorship with tenure
in 1998, and currently holds five honorary doctorates and an honorary
chaired professorship at the National Tsinghua University in Taiwan.
Christensen is the best-selling author of five books, including his seminal
work The Innovator's Dilemma, which received the Global Business Book Award
for the best business book of the year, The Innovator's Solution, and Seeing
What's Next. Recently, Christensen has focused the lens of disruptive
innovation on social issues such as education and health care. Disrupting
Class looks at the root causes of why schools struggle and offers solutions,
while The Innovator's Prescription examines how to fix the American
healthcare system. The latter two books have received numerous awards as the
best books on education and health care in their respective years of
publication. The Innovator's Prescription was also awarded the 2010
James A. Hamilton Award, by the College of Healthcare Executives.
Personal life Christensen lives in Belmont,
Massachusetts with his wife, Christine. They have five children, including
Matthew who played college basketball at Duke University and was a member of the
2001 National Championship team. Christensen is a member of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. From 1971 to 1973 he served as a missionary
in the Republic of Korea and speaks fluent Korean. He has served in several
leadership positions in the LDS Church. He served as an area seventy from 2002
to 2009. Prior to that he served as a counselor in the presidency of the
Massachusetts Boston Mission. He has also served as a bishop.
In February 2010, Christensen announced that he had been diagnosed with
follicular lymphoma. In July 2010, he had an ischemic stroke.
Despite Christensen’s health setbacks, he is once again actively teaching,
speaking and writing. In 2011, Christensen published two books: The
Innovative University and The Innovator’s DNA.
Honors and awards In 2011, Forbes called him "one of the
most influential business theorists of the last 50 years" in a cover story
In both 2011 and 2013 he was ranked #1 in the Thinkers 50.
2014 Herbert Simon Award 2015 Edison Achievement Award
2015 Brigham Young University Distinguished Service Award
Bibliography = Journal articles authored or
coauthored by Christensen = Christensen, Clayton M.; Bower, Joseph
L., "Disruptive technologies: catching the wave", Harvard Business Review. The
seminal article. Christensen, Clayton M.; Overdorf,
Michael, "Meeting the challenge of disruptive change", Harvard Business
Review. Christensen, Clayton M.; Bohmer,
Richard; Kenagy, John, "Will disruptive innovations cure health care?", Harvard
Business Review. Christensen, Clayton M.; Cook, Scott;
Hall, Taddy, "Marketing malpractice: the cause and the cure", Harvard Business
Review. Christensen, Clayton M.; Marx, Matthew;
Stevenson, Howard H., "The tools of cooperation and change", Harvard
Business Review. Christensen, Clayton M.; Baumann,
Heiner; Ruggles, Rudy; Sadtler, Thomas M., "Disruptive innovation for social
change", Harvard Business Review. Christensen, Clayton M., "How will you
measure your life?", Harvard Business Review.
= Books authored or coauthored by Christensen =
Christensen, Clayton M., The innovator's dilemma: when new technologies cause
great firms to fail, Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Harvard Business
School Press, ISBN 978-0-87584-585-2. Christensen, Clayton M.; Raynor, Michael
E., The innovator's solution: creating and sustaining successful growth,
Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Harvard Business School Press, ISBN
978-1-57851-852-4. Christensen, Clayton M., Innovation and
the general manager, Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Harvard Business
Press, ISBN 978-0-07-365915-2. A casebook. Designed as a practical tool
to help managers. Christensen, Clayton M.; Anthony, Scott
D.; Roth, Erik A., Seeing what's next: using the theories of innovation to
predict industry change, Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Harvard Business
School Press, ISBN 978-1-59139-185-2. Christensen, Clayton M.; Horn, Michael,
Disrupting class: how disruptive innovation will change the way the world
learns, New York, New York, USA: McGraw-Hill, ISBN 978-0-07-159206-2.
Christensen, Clayton M.; Grossman, Jerome H.; Hwang, Jason, The innovator's
prescription: a disruptive solution for health care, New York, New York, USA:
McGraw-Hill, ISBN 978-0-07-159208-6. Christensen, Clayton M.; Eyring, Henry
J., The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education, New York,
New York, USA: John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-1-11-806348-4.
Christensen, Clayton M.; Allworth, James; Dillon, Karen, How Will You
Measure Your Life?, New York, New York, USA: HarperBusiness, ISBN 9780062102416.
Christensen, Clayton M., The Power of Everyday Missionaries, Salt Lake City,
Utah, USA: Deseret Book, ISBN 1609073169. The What and How of Sharing
the Gospel. References
External links Quotations related to Clayton M.
Christensen at Wikiquote Official Homepage
Interview on NPR's On Point - "Clayton Christensen’s Prescription For Health
Care", April 14, 2011