De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms
61 – 65 Great Queen Street, London

About the Gala
Who Will Be There?
Programme
Media Coverage
Venue
Hotels
What Thinkers are Saying
Dress

THE THINKERS50 GALA

A biennial gathering of the leading management thinkers of our era. Be a part of this unique opportunity – meet, mingle, and be inspired at what may be the most important ideas exchange in the business and management world.

The next Thinkers50 Gala will be held at London’s Guildhall on Tuesday 16 November 2021, featuring announcement of our 11th biennial ranking of management thinkers. Save the date!

2019 Results – Ranking and Award Winners

THINKERS50 2019

Every two years, Thinkers50 hosts a unique event in central London – a gathering of great business minds for a day of ideas, debate, and networking, followed by an elegant evening celebrating the very best in management thinking.

Highlights of this gala event, dubbed “The Oscars of Management Thinking” by the Financial Times included:

Announcement of the new Thinkers50 ranking of the world’s leading management thinkers, and presentation of the coveted trophy for the #1 ranked thinker for 2019. The Thinkers50 Ranking is widely considered the most influential ranking of its kind.
Announcement of the winners of the Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Awards. For 2019 the awards were:
- Breakthrough Idea Award
- Digital Thinking Award
- Ideas into Practice Award
- Innovation Award
- Leadership Award
- Marshall Goldsmith Award for Coaching & Mentoring
- Radar Award
- Strategy Award
- Talent Award
Shortlists for the 2019 Awards are here

JOIN THE EXCITEMENT

“Who knew management gurus could be so noisy – or so emotional? Gather business academics together in one place and they are more likely to exchange views on core competences or quietly debate the legacy of Peter Drucker. Put them in a banqueting hall and offer them the chance to win an award, though, and they go as mad as a group of middle managers at the Regional Salesperson of the Year gala luncheon!”

– Andrew Hill, Financial Times

WHO WAS THERE?

Selected confirmed attendees for Thinkers50 2019. Download the complete list of planned attendees.

Mohi Ahmed, Fujitsu Open Innovation Gateway

Simone Bhan Ahuja, author Disrupt It Yourself

Scott Anthony, Innosight

Steven Baert, Novartis

Marco Bertini, ESADE

Julian Birkinshaw, London Business School

Randall T. (Randy) Black, PMI Chairman

Rachel Botsman, author Who Can You Trust?

Tiffani Bova, author Growth IQ

Peter Bregman, author Leading with Emotional Courage

David Burkus, author Under New Management

Christian Busch, LSE

Dan Cable, London Business School

Gabriella Cacciotti, Warwick Business School

Ron Carucci, managing partner Navalent

Subir Chowdhury, CEO, ASI Consulting

Dorie Clark, author Reinventing You

David Cobb, CEO, Oceanova

Alisa Cohn, coach

Stuart Crainer, co-founder Thinkers50

Richard D’Aveni, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College

Des Dearlove, co-founder Thinkers50

Jos de Blok, Founder & CEO Buurtzorg

Jim Detert, Darden

Sir Chris Deverell

Frank Dillon, Editor, Decision

Karen Dillon, co-author The Prosperity Paradox

Sameer Dua, Institute for Generative Leadership, India

Jeff Dyer, co-author The Innovator’s DNA

Alessandro Di Fiore, ECSI Consulting

Amy Edmondson, Harvard Business School

Mark Esposito, author The AI Republic

Tasha Eurich, author Insight

Peter Fisk, author Change Makers

Karolin Frankenberger, University of St Gallen

Stew Friedman, Wharton School

Nathan Furr, Insead

Steve Goldbach, Deloitte

Marshall Goldsmith, author Triggers

Soulaima Gourani, co-founder womenreignite.com

VJ Govindarajan, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College

Hal Gregersen, MIT

Anil Gupta, Smith School of Business, University of Maryland

Didem Gurcuoglu, MCT, Turkey

Jeremy Heimans, New Power

Marga Hoek, author Trillion Dollar Shift

Raymond Hofmann

Herminia Ibarra, London Business School

Adi Ignatius, Editor, Harvard Business Review

Anders Indset, author Wild Knowledge

Santiago Iniguez, Dean, IE University

Kriti Jain, IE Business School

His Excellency Ali Jawad, Oman Business Forum

Whitney Johnson, author Disrupt Yourself

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School

Amit Kapoor, Institute for Competitiveness, India

Carol Kauffman, Institute of Coaching

Perry Keenan, Boston Consulting Group.

Oleg Konovalov, author, Corporate Superpower

Kaihan Krippendorff, founder Outthinker

Ben Laker, National Centre for Leadership & Management

Curtis Lefrandt, coauthor The Innovator’s DNA

Alexandra Levit, author Humanity Works

David Lewis, London Business School

Martin Lindstrom, author Small Data

Carsten Linz, SAP

Rita McGrath, Columbia Business School

Roger Martin, Rotman School of Management

Erin Meyer, Insead

Joost Minnaar, Corporate Rebels

Magdalena Mook, International Coach Federation

Karl Moore, McGill University

Pim de Morree, Corporate Rebels

Leena Nair, Chief HR Officer, Unilever

David Nour, author Co-Create

Alex Osterwalder, Strategyzer

Gianpiero Petriglieri, Insead

Jennifer Petriglieri, Insead

Yves Pigneur, University of Lausanne

Gary Pisano, Harvard Business School

Dan Pontefract, author The Purpose Effect

Deepa Prahalad, author Predictable Magic

Aneeta Rattan, London Business School

Alf Rehn, University of Southern Denmark

Megan Reitz, Hult Ashridge Business School

Alison Reynolds, Hult Ashridge Business School

Antonio Nieto Rodriguez, author The Project Revolution

Johan Roos, Chief Academic Officer, Hult Business School

Fabrizio Salvador, IE Business School

Sanyin Siang, Duke CE

Hermann Simon, Simon Kucher & Partners

Michael Bungay Stanier, author The Coaching Habit

Wilko Stark, Daimler AG

Danny Stern, Stern Strategy Group

Henry Stewart, CEO, Happy

Tejas Sura, PMI Board of Directors

Behnam Tabrizi, Stanford Business School

Yoshi Takashige, vice president, Fujitsu

Don Tapscott, Blockchain Research Institute

Olivier Terree, CrossKnowledge

Nicole Torres, Harvard Business Review

Geoff Tuff, Deloitte

Ruchika Tulshyan, author The Diversity Advantage

Ricardo Vargas, The Brightline Initiative

Tendayi Viki, Strategyzer

Haiyan Wang, China India Institute

Amy Webb, Future Today Institute

Ania Wieckowski, Executive Editor, Harvard Business Review

Cali Yost, Flex+Strategy group

Chris Zook, author The Founder’s Mentality

PROGRAMME

Monday, November 18, 2019
DeVere Grand Connaught Rooms, London

Download the Thinkers50 2019 Programme

WHAT THINKERS ARE SAYING

I was lucky enough to be honored by the Thinkers 50 last year with their lifetime achievement award. If the phrase “time of my life” had not been invented, I would have invented it on the spot. First the turnout: “Everybody was there” is only the slightest exaggeration. Stars in my field whose work I had admired and used for decades, most of whom I’d never met “F2F,” were present–by the dozen. My head was literally twirling from one old/new colleague to another…

Read the full Letter from Tom Peters

Tom Peters

Writer

It’s the Oscars of Management Thinking. Period. Exclamation point.

Whitney Johnson

Author, Disrupt Yourself

I want to thank Des and Stuart for creating this whole movement that Thinkers50 represents. As they have said, ideas truly do change the world. I have seen that with my own eyes all throughout my career. I also believe that management thinking unlocks value in every field, not just business.

Michael Porter

Harvard Business School

I love the Thinkers50. And the reason is increasingly in the world of business academics the enforced culture is to speak exclusively to other academics. Thinkers50 rewards business academics and other business thinkers for speaking to the world of practitioners. We need more of that. Without Thinkers50 the academic/practitioner imbalance would be much greater so it plays a very important role.

Roger Martin

former dean, Rotman School of Management

What excites me about Thinkers50? It is a group looking for new approaches and celebrating the novel, the ways we are pushing forward the leading edge of our organizations today. We spend more of our time in our companies than anywhere else in our lives. If we can find better approaches to managing these organizations, that’s going to change lives and ultimately change the world. Organizations are the most powerful force on this planet and if we can manage them better we can do a lot of good in the world. Organizations like this that are pushing that edge and celebrating advances inspire me.

Brian Robertson

Founder, HolacracyOne

If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound? If we have ideas, but no one uses them or finds value in them, do they matter? Thinkers50 is a validation that ideas are at least heard by and maybe help others.

Dave Ulrich

HR guru

HISTORIC VENUE

For 2019, Thinkers50 once again took up residence at the iconic De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden, central London. Dating back to 1775, this historic building was once home to the original Freemason’s Tavern and, since becoming a hotel in 1909, has hosted the world’s leading politicians, royalty, and celebrities. With grand Georgian architecture, ornate ceilings, and art deco interiors, the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms was an exceptional venue for the Thinkers50 gala event, in the heart of London’s West End.

Hotels

Hotels recommended by the DeVere Grand Connaught Rooms include:

5 STARS
Rosewood London
– Distance: 0.3 miles

Me London
– Distance: 0.4 miles

Kimpton London Fitzroy
– Distance: 0.6 miles

4 STARS
The Hoxton
– Distance: 0.2 miles

Radisson Blu Edwardian
– Distance: 0.5 miles

Club Quarters Hotel
– Distance: 0.2 miles

MEDIA COVERAGE

Thinkers50 attracts media coverage from throughout the world. Journalists from China, Korea, Germany, France, the US and the UK attend our events. Among many others, the ranking and awards have been featured by:

BBC, UK
Business Insider, US
China Daily, China
China National TV News, China
Chosun Biz, Korea
Conference Board Review, US
Executive Excellence, Spain
The Economist, UK
Financial Times, UK
Forbes, US
Globe & Mail, Canada

Harvard Business Review, China
Harvard Business Review, US
Les Echos, France
Manager Seminare, Germany
Smart Manager, India
The Times of India, India
The Times, UK
Vedomosti, Russia
The Wall Street Journal, US
Washington Post, US

DRESS

Daytime events require business attire. The Thinkers50 Gala in the evening is a formal event.

CONTACT

To learn more, contact the Thinkers50 founders: Stuart Crainer or Des Dearlove.