Clayton M. Christensen

Clayton M. Christensen is an American scholar, writer, educator, a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) church leader, and business consultant. He is currently a Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration in the Harvard Business School, where he teaches the elective Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise. Within the world of business, engineering, and sciences, he is predominantly known for his 1997 written work The Innovators Dilemma, where he first coined the term Destructive Innovation. As a result, his novel had won the Global Business Book Award as the best business book of the year.

Clayton M. Christensen was born on April 6th, 1952 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The second of eight children, Christensen was brought up within a Christian family, where his father worked at ZMCI at the grocery and foods division, stocking food and shelves. His Mother was a High School teacher, as well as a video and television writer and producer. It is noted by Christensen via interview that he received heavy inspiration from his mother, specifically when she was quoted saying 'the more you learn Clayton, the more talents you develop, the more ways God can shape you to be useful in building his kingdom.' Through time spent with his mother, he has credited her as his main inspiration, pushing him to his personal goal in receiving the highest education possible. In addition, both his parents served as volunteers in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His Dad was the stake president and his mother served as a member of the YWMIA board which oversaw programs for young women in the LDS church.

After leaving high school and the comfort of home, he attended Brigham Young University (BYU) for his undergraduate degree, where he interrupted his studies to volunteer in Korea with the LDS Church from 1971-1973. During this time frame Korea was known to be one of the poorest nations within Asia, and as a result of his volunteering experience, he developed a deep understanding of personal happiness and its separation from wealth. In addition, he had also learned to speak fluent Korean.

Coming back from Korea and into his senior year at BYU, Christensen graduated as the summa cum laude, and was accepted into Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, where he received a M.Phil. in applied econometrics in 1977. Following his studies at Oxford, Christensen went on to receive a MBA with High Distinction from the Harvard Business School in 1979, graduating as a George F. Baker Scholar. In 1982 he went on to be named a White House Fellow, and served through 1983 as an assistant to U.S. Transportation Secretaries. He attended Harvard again in 1992, where he was rewarded a DBA from the Harvard Business School later that year. He eventually went on to become a faculty member, and received full professorship with tenure in 1998.

During his time pursuing a DBA at Harvard, Christensen began his research into disruptive innovation; he asked himself why large, prominent and urbanely successful companies with brilliant CEO's and managers often failed. It was this research that lead to the publication of his best selling book The Innovators Dilemma, which goes into detail of the ideology that new innovative technologies often spell the deaths of larger firms.

As a result of this publication, the term destructive innovation is coined, and is considered one of the most prevalent themes in business, science, and engineering today. This ideology pushes for the satisfaction of consumers via the use of constant market innovation in larger companies, and in doing this allows for said larger companies to escape the notion of being outlived by smaller, more technologically advanced businesses. This ideology has promoted for the rapid development of new business practices in today's market, ranging from applying different marketing strategies to developing changes in the office work space. Additionally, the notion of constant innovation has also pushed for the development of the engineering and science disciplines; companies have turned to these profession in hopes of creating innovation, funding and accelerating scientific and technological development. It is indisputable to say that these themes, which have already heavily impacted the business world today, will continue to steadily pressure engineers and scientists to further their innovation.