Clayton Christensen - DeveloPassion

# Clayton Christensen Clayton Magleby Christensen (1952–2020) was an American academic, business consultant, and author. He was the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and is best known for his theory of [[Disruption Theory|disruptive innovation]]. ## Biography - Born: April 6, 1952, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA - Died: January 23, 2020 (age 67) - Education: BYU, Oxford (Rhodes Scholar), Harvard MBA, Harvard DBA - Career: Professor at Harvard Business School (1992–2020) ## Key Contributions Christensen's most influential work centers on understanding why successful companies fail. His research showed that well-managed companies often fail not because they make mistakes, but because they focus rationally on their best customers—who don't initially want disruptive products. ## Notable Books - **The Innovator's Dilemma** (1997) — Introduced the concept of disruptive innovation - **The Innovator's Solution** (2003) — Follow-up with prescriptive guidance - **Seeing What's Next** (2004) — Predicting industry change - **The Innovator's DNA** (2011) — Skills of disruptive innovators - **How Will You Measure Your Life?** (2012) — Applying business theories to personal life - **Competing Against Luck** (2016) — Jobs-to-be-done theory ## Awards & Recognition - Named the world's most influential business thinker by Thinkers50 (2011, 2013) - McKinsey Award for best Harvard Business Review article (multiple times) ## Legacy His concept of disruptive innovation has become foundational in business strategy and is widely applied to understand technological change, including the current AI revolution. ## Quotes  ## Related - [[Disruption Theory]]