Clayton Christensen was a giant of a man in every way. Standing at 6’8” tall, he physically towered over everyone. But as smart as he was, he never made you feel like you were less than him. Maybe it was his soothing, calm voice or his perfect way of explaining a principle without sounding condescending. There hasn’t been a person who has had a greater impact on strategic thinking in business than Clayton Christensen. And while The Innovator’s Dilemma is his most famous book, his best book is How to Measure Your Life. He had a profound positive impact on my life, both professionally and spiritually.
In that light, I compiled a list of links to honor Professor Christensen. Many ideas and themes overlap, but akin to his many books, they are worth reading/listening to more than once.
Articles
In memoriam
- Deseret News Clayton Christensen Dies at 67
- Harvard Business Review The Gentle Giant of Innovation
- HBR Karen Dillon What Clayton Christensen Taught Me
- Deseret News A Tribute to Clayton Christensen
Articles
- HBR The Essential Clayton Christensen (a list of his HBR articles)
- The New Yorker When Giants Fall
- Quartz interview about Competing Against Luck
- Signal vs Noise What are Questions
- Techcrunch Venture Capital, Crowdfunding, and How to Measure Your Life
- HBR How Will You Measure Your Life (although I recommend the book)
- HBR What is Disruptive Innovation
- Ryan Seamons 8 Lessons Product Managers Need to Learn from Clayton Christensen
- BYU Magazine The Disruptor
- BYUI Devotional Decisions for Which I Have Been Grateful
- Clayton Christensen Why I Believe, Why I Belong
Podcasts
- Exponent with Ben Thompson and James Allworth (co-author How Will You Measure Your Life) It’s Been a Week
- A16Z Competing Against Luck
- The Critical Path with Horace Dediu An Interview with Clayton Christensen
Youtube
- TedX Boston How Will You Measure Your Life
- StartUp Grind with Marc Andreessen Innovation and Disruption
Other: My very rough sketchnotes of the first time I heard him speak in person.
To end, here is a quote from How Will you Measure Your Life that we should all live by:
“I’ve concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn’t dollars but the individual people whose lives I’ve touched.”
Rhett Weller 