Hire Clayton Christensen

Increasing successful innovations is one of the top priorities for CEOs around the world. Competition is stiff and one of the best ways to increase shareholder value is through innovation. In this powerful address, Professor Clayton Christensen, the world’s foremost authority on innovation, will argue that the way we are taught at business schools and the way well managed companies are run, are more likely to destroy the prospect of successful innovation, rather than encourage it.

CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN, LEADER OF INNOVATION
Professor Christensen will argue that our usual methods of financial analysis − such as discounted cash flow − our ways of studying customer satisfaction and the current fad for outsourcing, are factors that lead to long term deterioration in performance. Christensen believes these things can destroy opportunities for genuine innovation and create leaps in shareholder value.

Innovations coming from new firms and new entrants in the market can disrupt the status quo by focusing on obsessions with core competencies of the past, rather than moving towards future value streams. However, there is hope for leaders in established organizations! While there is no silver bullet for innovation, there are many things leaders can do to stimulate innovation.

Professor Christensen will outline how we can make innovation more predictable. A few of the tactics he will identify include adopting new approaches to financial analysis, re-focusing on the real needs of customers and determining what should be outsourced, amongst other things.

Professor Christensen is author of globally best-selling books on innovation, including The Innovator’s Dilemma and The Innovator’s Solution. He has been a professor at Harvard Business School since 1992.