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About the author
Tim Mansfield is a strategist, culture consultant and futures researcher, specialising in the cultural sector. He has been the CEO of the Interaction Consortium since August 2016.
Visit profileClayton M. Christensen, a Harvard professor whose groundbreaking 1997 book, “The Innovator’s Dilemma”, outlined his theories about the impact of what he called “disruptive innovation” on leading companies and catapulted him to superstar status as a management guru, died on Thursday in a Boston hospital. He was 67.
We've been using Prof. Christensen's concepts of disruptive innovation and his Jobs-To-Be-Done theory for years. By all accounts he was a generous, thoughtful soul who was kind and helpful to the people around him.
This is a message from his family, posted on his Twitter account which gives you some idea of the man and his legacy. While his life was a gift to his family and friends and, more broadly, to those of us who think about business and innovation, his death is a loss to all of us.
Here is a list of obituary pieces to give you some idea of Clay's impact:
- Clayton Christensen, Guru of ‘Disruptive Innovation,’ Dies at 67
– The New York Times - Tech Loses a Prophet. Just When It Needs One
– The New York Times - The man who changed disruption—and saw his own theories get disrupted
– MIT Technology Review - What Clayton Christensen Taught Me
– by Karen Dillon in Harvard Business Review - In Memoriam Clayton Christensen: Storyteller Extraordinaire
– by Steve Denning in Forbes