Clayton Magleby Christensen (April 6, 1952January 23, 2020) was an American academic and business consultant who developed the theory of "
disruptive innovation", which has been called the most influential business idea of the early 21st century.
Christensen introduced "disruption" in his 1997 book ''
The Innovator's Dilemma
''The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail'', first published in 1997, is the best-known work of the Harvard professor and businessman Clayton Christensen. It expands on the concept of disruptive technologies, a t ...
'', and it led ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...
'' to term him "the most influential management thinker of his time." He served as the
Kim B. Clark Professor of
Business Administration at the
Harvard Business School (HBS), and was also a leader and writer in
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...
(LDS Church). One of the founders of the Jobs to Be Done development methodology.
Christensen was also a co-founder of Rose Park Advisors, a venture capital firm, and
Innosight
Innosight is a strategy consultancy within Huron Consulting Group, advising enterprises on business strategy. Innosight was founded in 2000 by Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen and senior partner Mark W. Johnson. Innosig ...
, a management consulting and investment firm specializing in innovation.
Early life and education
Clayton Christensen was born on April 6, 1952, in
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...
,
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
, the second of eight children born to Robert M. Christensen (1926–1976) and his wife, Verda Mae Christensen (''née'' Fuller; 1922–2004).
He grew up in the
Rose Park neighborhood of Salt Lake City and attended
West High School, where he was student body president.
Christensen and his siblings were raised as members of the LDS Church. Christensen was an avid
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
player who stood tall, and later became the starting
center
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...
on the
men's basketball team during his time at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
.
After graduating from high school in 1970, Christensen was accepted to
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
,
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
, and
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...
(BYU). He "decided to make the decision a matter of prayer" and felt a "clear impression" to attend BYU, which had awarded him a full scholarship.
Christensen majored in
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
, and was classmates in his first-year economics course with future U.S. presidential candidate
Mitt Romney and future Harvard Business School dean
Kim B. Clark.
While at BYU, he took a two-year leave of absence from 1971 to 1973 to serve as a volunteer
full-time missionary for the LDS Church. He was assigned to serve in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
and became a fluent speaker of
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
. Christensen returned to BYU after completing his missionary service, and in 1975 graduated with an
Honors
Honour (or honor in American English) is the quality of being honorable.
Honor or Honour may also refer to:
People
* Honor (given name), a unisex given name
* Brian Honour (born 1964), English footballer and manager
* Gareth Honor (born 1979 ...
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
''
summa cum laude'' in economics.
After graduating from BYU, Christensen won a
Rhodes Scholarship and spent two years studying
applied econometrics at Oxford University's
Queen's College, receiving an
M.Phil.
The Master of Philosophy (MPhil; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. In the United States, an MPhil typically includes a taught portion and a significant research portion, during which a thesis project is conducted under supervision. An MPhil ...
in 1977.
While at Oxford, Christensen was a member of the men's basketball team, winning back-to-back British University Sports Federation championships in 1975 and 1976 and the English Basketball Association's national championship for non-league teams in 1977. Christensen then returned to the United States to attend the
Harvard Business School, receiving an
MBA
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
with high distinction in 1979.
Career
After receiving his MBA in 1979, Christensen began working for
Boston Consulting Group
Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three (or MBB, the world’s three largest management consulting firms by re ...
(BCG) as a consultant and project manager.
In 1982, he was named a
White House Fellow
The White House Fellows program is a federal fellowship program established via Executive Order by President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson in October 1964, based upon a suggestion from John W. Gardner, then the president of Carnegie Corp ...
and took a one-year leave of absence from BCG to work in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
as an assistant to the
U.S. Secretary of Transportation
The United States secretary of transportation is the head of the United States Department of Transportation. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to transportation. The secre ...
, serving under both
Drew Lewis
Andrew Lindsay Lewis Jr. (November 3, 1931 – February 10, 2016), generally known as Drew Lewis, was an American businessman and politician from the state of Pennsylvania. He was United States Secretary of Transportation in the first portion ...
and
Elizabeth Dole
Mary Elizabeth Alexander Hanford Dole (née Hanford; born July 29, 1936)Mary Ella Cathey Hanford, "Asbury and Hanford Families: Newly Discovered Genealogical Information" ''The Historical Trail'' 33 (1996), pp. 44–45, 49. is an American attorn ...
. In 1984, he and several professors from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
founded an advanced
ceramics
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
company called Ceramics Process Systems Corporation (now known as CPS Technologies). Christensen served as its president and CEO through the late 1980s, then decided to leave the company and become a university professor. He returned to Harvard for doctoral study in business, receiving a
Doctor of Business Administration
The Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) is either a professional doctorate or a research doctorate, depending on the granting university, awarded on the basis of advanced study, examinations, project work, and research in business administrat ...
degree in 1992. After completing his doctorate, Christensen joined the Harvard Business School's faculty and set a record by achieving the rank of
"full" professor in only six years.
In 2000, he founded Innosight LLC, a consulting and training firm. In 2005, together with his colleagues at Innosight, he launched Innosight Ventures, a venture firm focused on investing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. In 2007, he co-founded Rose Park Advisors LLC (named after the neighborhood in Salt Lake City where he grew up), an investment company that applies his research as an investment strategy.
He served on the board of directors of
Tata Consultancy Services (NSE: TCS), Franklin Covey (NYSE: FC), and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. He also served for a time on the editorial board of the ''
Deseret News''.
At HBS, he taught an elective course he designed called "Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise", which teaches how to build and manage an enduring, successful company or transform an existing organization, and also in many of the school's executive education programs. Christensen was awarded a full professorship with tenure in 1998, and held eight
honorary doctorates
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
and an honorary chaired professorship at the
National Tsinghua University in
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
.
Christensen was the best-selling author of ten books, including his seminal work ''
The Innovator's Dilemma
''The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail'', first published in 1997, is the best-known work of the Harvard professor and businessman Clayton Christensen. It expands on the concept of disruptive technologies, a t ...
'' (1997), which received the Global Business Book Award for the best business book of the year. One of the main concepts depicted in this book is also his most disseminated and famous one:
disruptive innovation. The concept has been growing in interest over time since 2004, according to Google Trends data. However, due to constant misinterpretation, Christensen often wrote articles trying to explain the concept even further. Some of his other books are focused on specific industries and discuss social issues such as education and health care. ''Disrupting Class'' (2008) looks at the root causes of why schools struggle and offers solutions, while ''The Innovator's Prescription'' (2009) 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.
In 2017, Christensen predicted that “50 percent of the 4,000 colleges and universities in the U.S. will be bankrupt in 10 to 15 years.”
Personal life
Christensen and his wife Christine (''née'' Quinn) married in 1976. They had three sons, Matthew, Michael, and Spencer, and two daughters, Ann and Catherine. Their eldest son, Matthew Christensen (b. 1977), was a member of
Duke University's
2001 National Championship basketball team.
[
As a member of the LDS Church,] Christensen served from 1971 to 1973 as a missionary in Korea and spoke fluent Korean. He served in several leadership positions in the church, including as an area seventy
Seventy is a priesthood office in the Melchizedek priesthood of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Traditionally, a church member holding this priesthood office is a "traveling minister" and an "especial witness" of Je ...
from 2002 to 2009, a counselor in the presidency
A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified b ...
of the Massachusetts Boston Mission
Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to:
Organised activities Religion
*Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity
*Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...
, and as a bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...
. His book, ''The Power of Everyday Missionaries'', was a leading work in the LDS Church on how all people could be involved in sharing the gospel no matter their position in the church. He was also a moving force behind the creation of ''For All The Saints'', a book by Kristen Smith Dayley on the history of the LDS Church in New England, published in 2012 to which Christensen wrote the foreword.
In February 2010, Christensen was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma
Follicular lymphoma (FL) is a cancer that involves certain types of white blood cells known as lymphocytes. The cancer originates from the uncontrolled division of specific types of B-cells known as centrocytes and centroblasts. These cells norma ...
, and in July 2010 he had an ischemic stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop funct ...
that damaged his speech and required him to undergo speech therapy. In 2011, Christensen published two books: ''The Innovative University'' and ''The Innovator’s DNA'' (Harvard Business Press). Christensen died from complications of leukemia on January 23, 2020, aged 67.
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 number 1 in the Thinkers 50, biannually awarded and is considered the world's most prestigious ranking of management thinkers.
* In 2017 he was ranked number 3 in the Thinkers 50.
* 2014 Herbert Simon Award
* In 2015, he was honored with an Edison Achievement Award
Edison Awards is an American company that runs an annual competition honoring excellence in innovation in a broad range of categories.
Company
The Edison Awards were established by the American Marketing Association in 1987 and has been an in ...
for his commitment to innovation throughout his career.
* 2015 Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...
Distinguished Service Award
Bibliography
Journal articles
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Christensen, Clayton M.; Dillon, Karen; Hall, Taddy; Duncan, David (September 2016)
"Know your customer's Job To Be Done", ''Harvard Business Review''
* Christensen, Clayton M.; Bartman, Tom; van Bever, Derek (September 2016)
"The Hard Truth about Business Model Innovation", ''MIT Sloan Management Review''
Books
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*Christensen, Clayton M.; Ojomo, Efosa; Dillon, Karen (2019), ''The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations out of Poverty'', New York, New York, USA: HarperBusiness, .
References
External links
*
Official Homepage
Interview on NPR's On Point
- "Clayton Christensen’s Prescription For Health Care", April 14, 2011 (audio)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christensen, Clayton M.
1952 births
20th-century Mormon missionaries
American business theorists
American business writers
American Rhodes Scholars
Area seventies (LDS Church)
Boston Consulting Group people
Brigham Young University alumni
Harvard Business School alumni
Harvard Business School faculty
2020 deaths
American Mormon missionaries in South Korea
Writers from Salt Lake City
American leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Latter Day Saints from Utah
Latter Day Saints from Massachusetts
Business educators