Clayton M. Christensen

Clayton M. Christensen’s Key Accomplishments Include . . .
Clayton M. Christensen 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. Professor Christensen's research and teaching interests center on managing innovation and creating new growth markets.

Professor Christensen holds a B.A. with highest honors in Economics from Brigham Young University, and an M.Phil. in Applied Econometrics and the Economics of Less-Developed Countries from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He received an MBA with High Distinction from the Harvard Business School, graduating as a George F. Baker Scholar. Clayton Christensen was awarded his DBA from the Harvard Business School as well.

A seasoned entrepreneur, Clayton M.Christensen has founded three successful companies. The first, CPS Corporation, is an advanced materials manufacturing company that he founded in 1984 with several MIT professors. The second, Innosight, is a consulting and training company focused on problems of strategy, innovation, and growth that Professor Christensen founded with several of his former students in 2000. Innosight Capital, the third firm, was launched in 2005. From 1979 to 1984 Clayton Christensen worked with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In 1982 Professor Christensen was named a White House Fellow, and served as assistant to U.S. Transportation Secretaries Drew Lewis and Elizabeth Dole.

Clayton Christensen became a faculty member at the Harvard Business School in 1992. Professor Christensen is author or co-author of several books including: The Innovator’s Dilemma, which received the Global Business Book Award for the best business book; The Innovator's Solution, a New York Times best seller; and Seeing What’s Next. In addition, he has edited two case books on innovation: Innovation and the General Manager and Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation, 4th edition. Professor Christensen's two most recent books, Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns; and The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care examine the problems of our healthcare and public education systems through the lenses of his theories. These also show how the problems in these industries can be resolved.

Professor Christensen's writings have won a number of additional awards, including the Best Dissertation Award from The Institute of Management Sciences; the Production and Operations Management Society's William Abernathy Award for the best paper in the management of technology; the Newcomen Society’s award for the best paper in business history; and the 1995 and 2001 McKinsey Awards for articles published in the Harvard Business Review.

More About Clayton M. Christensen. . .
ClaytonChristensen was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He worked as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Republic of Korea from 1971 to 1973 and speaks fluent Korean. Professor Christensen currently serves his church as an Area Authority Seventy, and recently published an essay about his beliefs, entitled “Why I Believe”

Professor Christensen has served as a director on the boards of a number of public and private companies including: Tata Consulting Services, Franklin Covey, W.R. Hambrecht, and Vanu. Clayton Christensen also serves on Singapore's Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC).

• The Innovator's Dilemma
• How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way We Learn
• The Innovator's Prescription
• The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth, Capturing the Upside While Avoiding the Downside