Biography - Clayton Christensen

CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN

This guide was originally prepared near the beginning of this century. It has since been updated to include recent books and articles. It was last updated Feb. 2012.

Update: Nov. 2008. Christensen's new book is now available: Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. As of this date there is a related blog by Christensen and co-authors Michael B. Horn and Curtis W. Johnson. See: http://disruptingclass.mhprofessional.com/apps/ab/

Clayton Christensen's newest book The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth is now available in the Business Library at. This book illustrates how companies move to the other side of the dilemma and create disruptions rather than be destroyed by them. The book argues that innovation can be a predictable process that delivers sustainable, profitable growth.

The latest, and certainly the tallest, author in the fields of business/management was profiled in a recent Globe & Mail article which carried the title "A New Giant Among Management Gurus" (by Dawn Walton, Monday, March 29,1999, p.b13). Clayton Christensen is a professor at the Harvard Business School and the author of The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Although the book was published in 1997 it, and the author, were given a boost by a cover story ("Danger: Stealth Attack" and "Gentle Giant") in Forbes (Jan.25, 1999); more copies of the book were sold in the subsequent 6 weeks than in all of 1998. As well, George Gilder in his Gilder Technology Report, called it "the most profound and useful business book ever written about innovation". This brief guide will quickly lead you to some of the material relating to Christensen that is readily available to you here at the Richard Ivey School of Business and the University of Western Ontario.

 

Books by Clayton Christensen in Western Libraries

The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators HD53.D94 2011
Co-authored by: Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen

The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education from the Inside Out LA227.4.C525 2011
Co-authored by: Henry J. Eyring

Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns LB1027.C4662 2011
Co-authored by: Michael B. Horn and Curtis W. Johnson

The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care WA540.AA1.C555i 2009
Co-authored by: Jerome H. Grossman and Jason Hwang

Seeing What's Next?: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change HD30.28.C54 2004
Co-authored by: Scott D. Anthony and Erik A. Roth

The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth HD53.C495 2003
Co-authored by: Michael E. Raynor

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail HD53.C49 1997

 

Selected Articles by Clayton Christensen

"Picking Green Tech's Winners and Losers", Stanford Social Innovation Review, Spring 2011, Vol. 9, Iss. 2, pp.30-36.

"The New M&A Playbook", Harvard Business Review, Mar. 2011, Vol. 89, Iss. 3, pp.48-57.

"How Will You Measure Your Life", Harvard Business Review, Jul/Aug. 2010, Vol. 88, Iss. 7/8, pp.46-51.

"The Innovator's DNA", Harvard Business Review, Dec. 2009, Vol. 87, Iss. 12, pp.60-67.

"Course Research: Using the Case Method to Build and Teach Management Theory", Academy of Management Learning and Education, June 2009, Vol. 8, Iss. 2, pp.240-251.

"Reinventing Your Business Model", Harvard Business Review, Dec. 2008, Vol. 86, Iss. 12, pp.50-59.

"Entrepreneur Behaviors, Opportunity Recognition, and the Origins of Innovative Ventures", Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Dec. 2008, Vol. 2, Iss. 4, pp.317-338.

"Innovation Killers", Harvard Business Review, Jan. 2008, Vol. 86, Iss. 1, pp.98-105.

"Finding the Job for Your Product", MIT Sloan Management Review, Spring 2007, Vol. 43, Iss. 3, pp.40-47.

"Disruptive Innovation for Social Change", Harvard Business Review, Dec. 2006, Vol. 84, Iss. 12, pp.94-101.

"The Tools of Cooperation and Change", Harvard Business Review, Oct. 2006, Vol. 84, Iss. 10, pp.73-80.

"The Ongoing Process of Building a Theory of Disruption", Journal of Product Innovation Management, Jan. 2006, Vol. 23, Iss. 1, pp.39-55.

"Marketing Malpractice",  Harvard Business Review, Dec. 2005, Vol. 83, Iss. 12, pp.74-83.

"Holding Fast", Harvard Business Review, June 2005, Vol. 83, Iss. 6, pp.35-46.

"Why Hard-Nosed Executives Should Care About Management Theory", Harvard Business Review, Sept. 2003, Vol. 81, 9, pp.66-74.

"Disrupt and prosper", Optimize, Nov 2002, pp.41-48.

"Disruption, Disintegration and the Dissipation of Deferentiability", Industrial and Corporate Change, Nov. 2002, Vol. 11, Iss. 5, pp.955-993.

"The great leap: Driving innovation from the base of the pyramid", MIT Sloan Management Review, V. 44, Iss. 1, Fall 2002, p. 51.

"The rules of innovation", Technology Review, V. 105, Iss. 5, June 2002, pp.32-38.

"Disruptive innovation: A new diagnosis for health care's "financial flu"", Healthcare Financial Management, V. 56, Iss. 5, May 2002, pp.62-66.

"Foundations for growth: How to identify and build disruptive new businesses", MIT Sloan Management Review, V. 43, Iss. 3, Spring 2002, p.. 22.

"Skate to Where the Money Will Be", Harvard Business Review, Nov. 2001, Vol. 79, Iss. 10, pp.72-81.

"The great disruption", Foreign Affairs, V. 80, Iss. 2, Mar/Apr 2001, pp.80-95.

"The past and future of competitive advantage", MIT Sloan Management Review,V.42, Iss. 2, Winter 2001, pp.105-109.

"Will disruptive innovations cure health care?", Harvard Business Review, V. 78, Iss. 5, Sep/Oct 2000, p.102.

"Limits of the New Corporation: The strength of the virtual organization is in outsourcing and paring down to core activities--until the game changes", Business Week, Iss. 3696, August 28, 2000, pp. 180-181.

"Meeting the challenge of disruptive change; Clayton M Christensen", Harvard Business Review, V. 78, Iss. 2, Mar/Apr 2000, pp. 66-76.

"A better way to break up Microsoft", Informationweek, Iss. 769, Jan 17, 2000, pp.122-124.

"Patterns of disruption in retailing", Harvard Business Review, V. 78, Iss. 1, Jan/Feb 2000, pp. 42-45.

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (HD53.C49)

"Strategies for Survival in Fast-Changing Industries", Management Science, V. 44, Iss. 12, Dec. 1998, pp.S207-S220.

"Why Great Companies Lose Their Way", Across the Board, V.35, Iss. 9, Oct. 1998, pp.36-41.

"Making Strategy: Learning By Doing", Harvard Business Review, V. 75, Iss. 6, Nov/Dec 1997, pp.141-150.

"Apple's Newton", Datamation, V. 43, Iss. 9, Sept. 1997, p.17.

"Customer Intuit-ion", Computerworld V. 31, Iss. 24, Jun. 16, 1997, p.C7.

"Have You Ever Wondered Why?", Computerworld , V. 31, Iss. 24, Jun. 16, 1997, p.C3.

"Mainframes, Minis and Micros", Computerworld, V. 31, Iss. 24, Jun. 16, 1997, p.C6.

"Lessons for Technology Users", Computerworld, V. 31, Iss. 24, Jun. 16, 1997, pp.C6-C11.

"The Disk Drive Dilemma", Computerworld, V. 31, Iss. 24, Jun. 16, 1997, p.C3.

"What Do Users Want?", Computerworld, V.31, Iss. 24, Jun. 16, 1997, p.C10.

"Patterns in the Evolution of Product Competition", European Management Journal V. 15, Iss. 2, Apr. 1997, pp.117-127.

"Explaining the Attacker's Advantage: Technological Paradigms, Organizational Dynamics, and the Value Network", Research Policy, V. 24, Iss. 2, Mar. 1995, pp.233-257.

"Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave", Harvard Business Review V.73, Iss. 1, Jan. 1995, pp.43-53.

"The Rigid Disk Drive Industry: A History of Commercial and Technological Turbulence", Business History, V.67, Iss.4, Winter 1993, p.531.

(All of the articles listed above are either in the Business Library or on ProQuest Direct. The same is true for the reviews noted below).

 

Selected Reviews of The Innovator's Dilemma

"The innovator's dilemma: When new technologies cause great firms to fail", Communication Education, V. 50, Iss. 1, Jan 2001, pp. 85-87.

"Biz Book Gets Late Buzz", Publisher's Weekly, V. 246, Iss. 9, Mar. 1, 1999, p.25.

"The Innovator's Dilemma", Supply Management, V. 4, Iss. 1, Jan. 7, 1999, p.45.

"The Innovator's Dilemma", America's Network, V. 29, Iss. 1, Dec. 1, 1998, pp.94-95.

"The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail", Sloan Management Review (Winter 1998)

"When Good Companies Fail", Industry Week (Jul. 21, 1997)

"Gentle Giant" and "Danger: Stealth Attack", both in Forbes, Jan.25, 1999

"The Innovator's Dilemma",R&D Management, (Jan. 1999)
This review begins - "In a tour de force study of the patterns of innovation across a wide variety
of industries, Christensen eloquently proves his hypothesis, namely that 'the logical, competent,
decisions of management that are critical to the success of their companies are also the reasons why
they lose their positions of leadership".

"The Innovator's Dilemma", Journal of Product Innovation Management, (Jan. 1998)
"This book is a must read for any one working in manufactured goods or service innovation,
particularly in the context of a large, successful company. It is an appealing book for practitioners
and academics alike, and would be thought provoking to those managers of new technology
development."