Clayton Christensen, influential scholar of ‘disruptive innovation,’ dies at 67 – The Washington Post
Clayton Christensen, a Harvard Business School professor who brought “disruption” into the corporate lexicon and became one of the world’s most influential business thinkers, helping executives from Apple to Intel — as well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff — think about innovation in a new way, died Jan. 23 at a hospital in Boston. He was 67.
The cause was complications from leukemia, said Harvard Business School spokesman Brian Kenny.
A former all-state basketball player and local leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Dr. Christensen was perhaps an unlikely Ivy League academic. Raised in poverty on the west side of Salt Lake City, he demonstrated a somewhat extreme brand of thriftiness, saving tray liners from fast-food restaurants and driving the same Chevy Nova for years, even though his 6-foot-8 frame left him pressed against the ceiling.
He had previously worked as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group and co-founded an advanced materials company before joining the Harvard faculty in 1992, deciding he was better suited as an analyst than as an executive.