Light Bulb Thinkers

If necessity is the mother of invention, then innovation is its nurturing father. It has never been more pressing — in society as well as in organizations. Thinkers50 founders Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove spend their time scanning the world of business ideas. Here is their selection of the best commentators and thinkers on innovation.

Ron Adner
Tuck Business School professor and author of The Wide Lens (HBR, 2013).

Scott Anthony
Managing partner of Innosight, coauthor with Clay Christensen and solo of The First Mile (HBR, 2014).

David Burkus
Oral Roberts University professor and author of The Myths of Creativity (Jossey-Bass, 2013). New book, Under New Management coming out in 2016.

Henry Chesbrough
Exec director of Center for Open Innovation at Haas School and author of, most recently, Managing Open Innovation in Large Firms (Fraunhofer Verlag, 2013).

Alexa Clay & Kyra Maya Phillips
Innovation comes from the fringe. How to hustle like a gangster, think like a pirate and more alternative takes revealed in Misfit Economy (Simon & Schuster, 2015).

Jeff DeGraff
Professor at University of Michigan’s Ross School. Developer of the Competing Values framework. Most recent book Innovation You (Ballantine, 2011).

Rowan Gibson
Co-founder of Innovation Excellence and author, most recently, of Four Lenses of Innovation (Wiley, 2015).

Vijay Govindarajan
Creator of reverse innovation. Tuck Business School professor and author of forthcoming The Three Box Solution (HBR, 2016).

Linda Hill
Harvard Business School professor and co-author Collective Genius (HBR, 2014).

Gary Pisano
Harvard Business School professor, co-author Producing Prosperity (HBR, 2012) and most recently author of “You Need an Innovation Strategy” in Harvard Business Review.

Joseph Pistrui
Creator of the concept of “nextsensing”. Former consultant, now IE Business School professor.

Jaideep Prabhu & Navi Radjou
Authors of Frugal Innovation (Economist, 2015), developing from championing of concept of “jugaad innovation”.

Alf Rehn
Finnish speaker, academic and author of Dangerous Ideas (Marshall Cavendish, 2011) and coauthor of Trendspotting (ebook, 2013).

Juan Pablo Vazquez Sampere
Professor at IE Business School and frequent HBR blogger applying disruptive innovation concepts to current managerial challenges.

Tina Seelig
Professor at Stanford University. Executive Director for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. Author of Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World (Harper Collins, 2015).

Robert Sutton
Professor at Stanford Engineering School. Author of Good Boss; Bad Boss (2010); and Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More without Settling for Less (with Huggy Rao, Crown Business, 2014).