Clayton Christensen
Authority on Disruptive Innovation; Author
Clayton Christensen is the Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. His interests center on the management issues related to the development and commercialization of technological and business model innovation. Formerly, he served as chairman and president of Ceramics Process Systems Corp, as a White House Fellow and as assistant to two US Transportation Secretaries. He is the author of the best selling books The Innovator’s Solution, The Innovator’s Dilemma and Seeing What's Next. His presentations identify the forces that cause bad decisions as managers package and shape new ideas and show how to position the firm where profits will be made in the future. Christensen has taken his essential principle of Disruptive Innovation Theory Christensen has battled and survived a brutal parade of health challenges, including diabetes, a heart attack, cancer, and stroke.
“Instead of telling him what to think, I told him how to think.” It’s a simple quote that embodies the mission – and mantra – of Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen: encourage inquiry. It’s also at the root of his disruptive innovation theory, which has defined 21st century business and continues to profoundly impact organizations and their leaders across the globe.
A world renowned innovation strategy and growth expert, Professor Christensen was recently named 2013’s most influential living management thinker in the world by Thinkers50 for the second time running, an achievement matched only by management legends Peter Drucker and CK Prahalad. He revolutionized conventional management thinking with his seminal book, The Innovator’s Dilemma (Harvard Business School Press, 1997), which explored the radical paradox that great companies fail by making the “right decisions” in the “wrong” situations. The New York Times best-seller has been translated into 18 languages, sold in more than 25 countries, and has deeply influenced some of the greatest business leaders of our time – among them, Apple’s Steve Jobs, business magnate Michael Bloomberg and Intel CEO Andy Grove.
Sixteen years later, Professor Christensen believes we are in the throes of the “Capitalist’s Dilemma” – a theory at the heart of his forthcoming book of the same name, which he hopes will “help us understand that policies that were once right are now wrong, and that counterintuitive measures might actually work to turn our economies around.” Professor Christensen also continues to focus the lens of disruptive innovation on the world’s most pressing social problems: healthcare and education.
But Professor Christensen believes one of his most enduring legacies will be an idea he first put forward in his 2003 book The Innovator’s Solution (Harvard Business Review Press): don’t sell products and services to customers, but rather try to help people address their jobs-to-be-done. This seemingly simple idea has terrific potential for reframing industries and is the basis for another forthcoming book.
A widely sought after speaker, advisor and board member, Professor Christensen’s research continues to be applied to national economies, start-up and Fortune 50 companies, as well as to early- and late-stage investing. He is also an experienced entrepreneur, having started three successful companies: CPS Technologies, innovation consulting firm Innosight, and investment firm Rose Park Advisors. He currently serves as a board member at Tata Consulting Services (NSE: TCS), Franklin Covey (NYSE: FC), and Ensign Group, Inc.
And yet, for all Professor Christensen has accomplished in his professional life, he urges people not to reserve “your best business thinking for your career.” Too often, he says, “we measure success in life against the progress we make in our careers.” This personal and provocative advice is detailed in his McKinsey Award-winning turned best-selling book, How Will You Measure Your Life? (HarperCollins, 2012), in which he encourages all of us to think about what is truly important.
A world renowned innovation strategy and growth expert, Professor Christensen was recently named 2013’s most influential living management thinker in the world by Thinkers50 for the second time running, an achievement matched only by management legends Peter Drucker and CK Prahalad. He revolutionized conventional management thinking with his seminal book, The Innovator’s Dilemma (Harvard Business School Press, 1997), which explored the radical paradox that great companies fail by making the “right decisions” in the “wrong” situations. The New York Times best-seller has been translated into 18 languages, sold in more than 25 countries, and has deeply influenced some of the greatest business leaders of our time – among them, Apple’s Steve Jobs, business magnate Michael Bloomberg and Intel CEO Andy Grove.
Sixteen years later, Professor Christensen believes we are in the throes of the “Capitalist’s Dilemma” – a theory at the heart of his forthcoming book of the same name, which he hopes will “help us understand that policies that were once right are now wrong, and that counterintuitive measures might actually work to turn our economies around.” Professor Christensen also continues to focus the lens of disruptive innovation on the world’s most pressing social problems: healthcare and education.
But Professor Christensen believes one of his most enduring legacies will be an idea he first put forward in his 2003 book The Innovator’s Solution (Harvard Business Review Press): don’t sell products and services to customers, but rather try to help people address their jobs-to-be-done. This seemingly simple idea has terrific potential for reframing industries and is the basis for another forthcoming book.
A widely sought after speaker, advisor and board member, Professor Christensen’s research continues to be applied to national economies, start-up and Fortune 50 companies, as well as to early- and late-stage investing. He is also an experienced entrepreneur, having started three successful companies: CPS Technologies, innovation consulting firm Innosight, and investment firm Rose Park Advisors. He currently serves as a board member at Tata Consulting Services (NSE: TCS), Franklin Covey (NYSE: FC), and Ensign Group, Inc.
And yet, for all Professor Christensen has accomplished in his professional life, he urges people not to reserve “your best business thinking for your career.” Too often, he says, “we measure success in life against the progress we make in our careers.” This personal and provocative advice is detailed in his McKinsey Award-winning turned best-selling book, How Will You Measure Your Life? (HarperCollins, 2012), in which he encourages all of us to think about what is truly important.
Topics:
- The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care
The landmark bill just passed extends healthcare to all citizens, but the fundamental flaws of healthcare - cost and accessibility - persist within the industry and throughout our society. Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen, widely recognized as the world's leading thinker on innovation, present a thoughtful proposal for improving efficiency, economy and quality in healthcare in "The Innovator's Prescription," co-authored with Dr. James Hwang is Amazon.com's #1 health policy bestseller for most of 2009. Prof. Christensen make it clear that lawmakers leapt so quickly into the debate about solutions that they didn't understand the common causes of healthcare's problems, focusing instead on the question of who should pay for it. By providing a non-partisan bedrock understanding of why healthcare has become so expensive and inaccessible, the authors build the common language necessary for us to predict which initiatives will solve these problems, which will be ineffective, and which will exacerbate them. The Authors particularly highlight the promise of integration - combining functions of payer and provider within one system - which will allow the healthcare industry to pursue, design and replicate innovations that lead to significant cost/quality improvements. According to the authors, passing the bill was really just a start. It's what happens next that will determine the cost of healthcare in this country and how much will ultimately change in the delivery of quality patient care. - The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth
Clayton Christensen reveals that innovation is not as unpredictable as most managers have come to believe. While the outcomes of past innovations seem random, the process by which innovations are packaged and shaped within companies is very predictable. By understanding and managing the forces that influence this process, companies can shape high-octane business plans that create truly disruptive growth. Christensen demonstrates the effects "disruptive technology" has had on certain industries and outlines a framework to develop, implement and maintain a "well functioning disruptive growth engine". His framework helps companies identify strategies and anticipate changes to help you stay ahead of the competition. - Capturing the Upside While Avoiding the Downside
Every company needs to grow, and innovation is the ticket to sustainable and profitable growth. What decisions can managers take to increase their probability of successfully building innovation-driven growth businesses? Many are convinced that it is impossible to predict with confidence whether an innovation will succeed, so they feel they need to place a number of bets with the hope that some will be winners. Others believe that the best way to create new growth businesses is to meticulously search for detailed quantitative data to identify opportunities and develop a rigorous plan to attack those opportunities. But many times conclusive data is only available after the game has already been won. Professor Clayton M. Christensen of the Harvard Business School has another way. He suggests using theory. A theory is a statement of what causes what and why. Whether managers know it or not, they are voracious consumers of theory. Every action a manager takes, every plan a manager makes is based on some belief of cause and effect. Managers have historically struggled to successfully manage innovation. They get a bewildering array of often conflicting and confusing advice. What has been lacking is a collection of well-grounded theories that explain the actions managers should take in particular circumstances. Through his recent research, Professor Christensen has developed a set of theories to help guide managers as they seek to answer seven critical questions when trying to build new growth businesses, again and again: How can I beat powerful competitors? How can I connect with customers? How integrated should I be? How should I set strategy? From whom should I get funding? Where should the innovation reside? What is the role of the CEO? - Destructing the World Health Care Industry
Best-selling author Professor Clayton Christensen has taken his essential principle of Disruptive Innovation Theory, which states that companies innovate faster than people's lives change, and applied it to the health care industry. Based on his extensive research for his upcoming book, Diagnosis: A Disruptive Remedy for Healthcare; Christensen's presentation will challenge how your organization thinks about health care and the future of the industry. His speeches are customized to each organization and cover topics including: The likely prospects for today's leading companies; How entrenched companies can displace today's leaders; Why health care is expensive and inaccessible; How to create new growth through affordability and simplicity; How to circumvent the rules
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