Clay

Clay Christensen, the father of disruptive innovation, has sadly passed away. Stuart and I were fortunate to get to know Clay over the years. He was without doubt one of the most intellectually gifted thinkers we have ever met. He was also a genuine and humble man. In his office at Harvard Business School he had a sign that said “anomalies welcome”. When we asked him about it he explained that he wanted people to challenge his theory with data that didn’t fit or couldn’t be explained by it. It was only through anomalies he said that a theory could be improved. Clay cared about anomalies because he wanted to make his work more robust and more useful. At a time when many of those in high positions prefer to ignore difficult truths, Clay welcomed them with an open mind. For that and for everything else he gave us he will be sorely missed. RIP Clay Christensen, the gentle giant of management thinking.