Harvard Authors
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Clayton M. Christensen
The Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, Clayton Christensen is an authority on disruptive innovation, the process by which an innovative product or service moves in and eventually displaces established competitors.
He is the author, most recently, of Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns (McGraw-Hill, 2008) and The Innovator’s Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care (McGraw-Hill, 2008).
Finding the Right Job For Your Product
In this seminal 2007 article, Christensen and co-authors Scott D. Anthony, Gerald Berstell and Denise Nitterhouse explain that while most companies differentiate their offerings by adding features and functions, most consumers simply want to “hire” the best product or service to do a job. Free to premium subscribers
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Good Days for Disruptors
In the minds of many, the financial crisis has given innovation a black eye. In this 2009 interview with MIT Sloan Management Review, Christensen explains why he thinks the economic downturn will have “an unmitigated positive effect on innovation.” Free to subscribers
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More from this author
How Hard Times Can Drive Innovation
A 2008 interview with Christensen for Executive Adviser, a publication produced in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal. Free to subscribers
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The Great Leap: Driving Innovation From the Base of the Pyramid
From 2002: Christensen and co-author Stuart L. Hart explain that with billions of poor people aspiring to join the worldís economy, disruptive innovation should be able to pave the way, helping companies combine sustainable corporate growth with social responsibility. Free to premium subscribers
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Foundations for Growth: How To Identify and Build Disruptive New Businesses
Also from 2002: Christensen and co-authors Mark W. Johnson and Darrell K. Rigby provide a blueprint to help managers understand if the conditions are right for disruption in their industry ó and how they can pull it off. Free to premium subscribers
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The Past and Future of Competitive Advantage
From 2001: Christensen lays out his overall thesis, that today’s competitive advantage may become tomorrow’s albatross unless strategists attune themselves to changes in underlying conditions. Free to premium subscribers
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Harvard authors on breakthroughs and innovation
Breakthroughs and the “Long Tail” of Innovation
Lee Fleming, the Albert J. Weatherhead III Professor of Business Administration at Harvard, argues that to understand how breakthroughs in innovation arise, managers first need to be aware of the different factors that shape the highly skewed distribution of creativity. Free to premium subscribers
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Oops!
Robert D. Austin, now cochair of Harvard Business School’s Executive Education Delivering Information Services (DIS) program, explains with his co-authors that accidents lead to innovations – so how do you create more accidents? Free to subscribers
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Capturing the Real Value of Innovation Tools
Stefan Thomke, an authority on the management of innovation and the William Barclay Harding Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, lays out how advances in development tools have tremendous potential for increasing productivity, cost savings and innovation. To reap the full benefits of such technologies, though, companies need to avoid some common pitfalls. Free to premium subscribers
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