The Queen's College Record 2020

Obituaries
Credit: Evgenia Eliseeva
CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN
Clayton M. Christensen, Harvard Business School’s
(HBS) Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration,
acclaimed author and teacher, and the world’s foremost
authority on disruptive innovation, died on January 23,
2020, surrounded by his loving family. Christensen was
67 years old.
Christensen joined the HBS faculty in 1992. He earned
a BA with highest honors in Economics from Brigham
Young University (1975); an MPhil in Applied Econometrics
from Oxford University, where he studied at Queen’s as a Rhodes Scholar (1977); and an
MBA with High Distinction (1979) and a DBA (1992) from Harvard Business School. He
was granted tenure at the School in 1998 and named to a chaired professorship in 2001.
‘Clayton Christensen was one of the world’s greatest scholars on innovation and a
remarkable person who had a profound influence on his students and colleagues,’
says Dean Nitin Nohria. ‘His research and writings transformed the way aspiring
MBAs, industries, and companies look at management. He was a beloved professor
and role model whose brilliant teaching and wisdom inspired generations of students
and young academics. Most importantly, Clayton had a passion for helping others be
their best selves that permeated every aspect of his life. His loss will be felt deeply by
many in our community and his legacy will be long-lasting.’
A gifted teacher across all of Harvard Business School’s educational programs,
Christensen developed and taught for many years the MBA elective curriculum
offering, Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise, which uses a general
manager’s lens to evaluate theories about strategy, innovation, and management
to predict which tools, strategies, and methods will be most effective. His Online
course, Disruptive Strategy, has engaged more than 5,000 learners – more than 10%
of Online’s cumulative learners to date. He also led doctoral seminars, served on a
number of doctoral thesis committees, and was a member of the Doctoral Policy
Committee. And he was a (highly sought-after) regular in a number of the School’s
comprehensive leadership and focused Executive Education program offerings. In
everything he did, Christensen sought to help his students understand the powerful
way they could be a force for good in society and in the lives of others as managers —
managers who energised and uplifted those around them.
A distinguished scholar, Christensen was one of the most influential business
theorists of the last 50 years, according to Forbes, and was twice ranked at the top
of the Thinkers 50 list among many other awards and accolades. His research and
ideas focus on identifying and managing factors that shape the way firms introduce
advanced technologies to existing and prospective markets, and the process by
which innovation transforms – or displaces – companies or entire industries. He first
118 The Queen’s College | College Record 2020