Thinkers 50

(via Times of India, April 10, 2007)

Launched in 2001, the Thinkers 50 is the world’s first ranking of business and management gurus. In a run to 2007 rankings, TOI will exclusively run profiles of those in the fray. If you have an opinion on who should figure in the list, you can vote on http://www.thinkers50.com

Ranked 21 in last year’s Thinkers 50, Clayton Christensen is the Robert and Jane Cizik professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. His research and writing interests focus on managing technological innovation and locating new markets for leading-edge technologies. He is the author of the management classic The Innovator’s Dilemma. The crux of his argument was that disruptive new technologies could cause even well-established companies to fall. “The criteria that managers use to make the decisions that keep their present businesses healthy make it impossible for them to do the right thing for their future,” he says. Part of the reason for this blinkered view is that companies tend to focus on listening closely to their ‘lead’ customers that will help them in their current business. Unfortunately, that prevents them from foreseeing future challenges. “If you only blindly listen to the leading customers of the current set that you listen to then you won’t see innovations that will take root amongst the other set,” says Christensen.

After the runaway success of his first book, Christensen followed it up with a second book titled The Innovator’s Solution which looked at the other side: how companies can create disruptions rather than being destroyed by them. His most recent book, titled Seeing What’s Next, says it is possible to predict which companies will win and which will lose in a specific situation. The best tribute to Chistensen’s work came from Inc Magazine which said, “Just as kids await the latest Harry Potter installment, so do business leaders look for Clayton M Chistensen’s next offering.”