Clayton M. Christensen

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Clayton M. Christensen (born April 6, 1952 in Salt Lake City, Utah) is the Robert and Jane Cizik 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 (ISBN 0-06-052199-6), articulated his theory of disruptive technology.

Professor Christensen holds a B.A. with highest honors in economics from Brigham Young University (1975), an M.Phil. in applied econometrics and the economics of less-developed countries from Oxford University (1977, Rhodes Scholar), an MBA with High Distinction from the Harvard Business School (1979, George F. Baker Scholar), and a DBA from the Harvard Business School (1992).

Before joining the faculty of Harvard Business School in 1992, Professor Christensen worked for the Boston Consulting Group and then served as chairman and president of Ceramics Process Systems Corporation (CPS), a firm he co-founded with several MIT professors in 1984. In 2000, he founded Innosight with some former students, a consulting and training firm which describes itself as "focusing on idea generation, strategy development, commercialization, and innovative process development." He launched a third firm, Innosight Ventures, in 2005. He joined the board of directors of Tata Consultancy Services, Mumbai, India in 2006.

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[edit] Other biographical facts

  • Served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Republic of Korea (1971 - 1973)[1]
  • Speaks fluent Korean[1]
  • Worked as a consultant and project leader with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) (1979-1984); instrumental in founding the firm's manufacturing strategy consulting practice
  • Took a leave of absence from BCG to serve as a White House Fellow (1982-1983) as assistant to U.S. Transportation Secretaries Drew Lewis and Elizabeth Dole
  • Is 6 feet 8 inches tall
  • Lives in Belmont, MA
  • Has five children with wife Christine - Matthew attended Duke and played on their 2001 championship basketball team and is a graduate of HBS. Ann, also a Duke grad, is currently attending HBS. Michael attended Harvard University. Spencer is currently serving a mission in Taiwan. Catherine is the youngest.

[edit] Books and Articles

  • The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Harvard Business School Press, 1997.
  • Innovation and the General Manager, a casebook
  • The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth, co-authored by Michael E. Raynor. Harvard Business School Press, 2003
  • Seeing What's Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change, co-authored by Scott D. Anthony, Erik A. Roth. Harvard Business School Press, 2004.
  • Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave, co-authored by Joseph L. Bower. Harvard Business Review, January-February 1995
  • Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change, co-authored by Michael Overdorf. Harvard Business Review, March-April 2000.
  • Will Disruptive Innovations Cure Health Care?, co-authored by Richard Bohmer and John Kenagy. Harvard Business Review, September-October 2000.
  • Marketing Malpractice: The Cause and the Cure, co-authored by Scott Cook and Taddy Hall. Harvard Business Review, December 2005.
  • The Tools of Cooperation and Change, co-authored by Matthew Marx and Howard H. Stevenson. Harvard Business Review, October 2006.
  • Disruptive Innovation for Social Change, co-authored by Heiner Baumann, Rudy Ruggles and Thomas M. Sadtler. Harvard Business Review, December 2006.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Biography". http://www.claytonchristensen.com/biography.html. Accessed 21 June 2007.

[edit] External links