Chris Clearfield & András Tilcsik

Award-winning authors exploring the increasing reliance of organizations on computer-based systems.

AWARD RECIPIENTS

Recipients of the Thinkers50 2019 Strategy Award.

SHORTLISTED

Tilcsik was shortlisted for the Thinkers50 2017 Strategy Award. 

FAST FACT

In 2015, Tilcsik and Clearfield won the Bracken Bower Prize from McKinsey and the Financial Times, given to the best business book proposal by scholars under 35.

Ideas

Clearfield and Tilscik explore the increasing reliance of organizations on digital systems and explain how the increasing complexity of these systems creates conditions ripe for failure. Drawing on insights from their research into traditional risk management they reveal compelling new strategies to counter this “paradox of progress”, including learning from incidents, encouraging dissent, using structured decision tools, diversifying teams, conducting risk review, and developing more realistic contingency plans.

Bio

Clearfield is the founder of System Logic, an independent research and consulting firm. Previously he worked as a derivatives trader at Jane Street, a quantitative trading firm, in New York, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. Hungarian-born Tilcsik is an associate professor of strategic management and holds the Canada Research Chair in Strategy, Organizations, and Society at the Rotman School of Management. He is also a faculty fellow at the Michael Lee-Chin Family Institute for Corporate Citizenship.

Content

Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It (Penguin Press, 2018).

Clearfield has written about catastrophic failure, technology, and finance for The Guardian, Forbes,  and the Harvard Business Review blog. Tilcsik’s research has appeared in the American Journal of Sociology, the American Sociological Review, and the Administrative Science Quarterly.

NATIONALITY: American and Hungarian

Media picks

Verdict

“Meltdown is one of the stand-out business books of the last decade.”

Stuart Crainer & Des Dearlove, Thinkers50

Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up to date with the latest and greatest ideas in business, management, and thought leadership.

*mandatory field

Thinkers50 will use the information you provide on this form to be in touch with you and to provide news, updates, and marketing. Please confirm that you agree to have us contact you by clicking below:


You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us, or by contacting us at . We will treat your information with respect. For more information about our privacy practices please visit our website. By clicking below, you agree that we may process your information in accordance with these terms.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Privacy Policy Update

Thinkers50 Limited has updated its Privacy Policy on 28 March 2024 with several amendments and additions to the previous version, to fully incorporate to the text information required by current applicable date protection regulation. Processing of the personal data of Thinkers50’s customers, potential customers and other stakeholders has not been changed essentially, but the texts have been clarified and amended to give more detailed information of the processing activities.

Thinkers50 Awards Gala 2023

Join us in celebration of the best in business and management thinking.