Clay Christensen - The Father of Disruption

Hands off Clayton Christensen, Miss Lepore

Published on:

23 Jun 2014, 7:58 am

Harvard professor Clayton Christensen

Some might say Clayton Christensen (62), the father of disruptive theory, had it coming. The Harvard professor who twice topped the Thinkers50's biennial table of the world's best business minds, is not one for pulling punches. Over the last couple years he has been swinging at his own profession through persistent warnings that academia must address obvious inefficiencies or face disruption.

It's clearly a message that does not sit comfortably in portals within his own university. Not well at all, judging by a biting article in the latest edition of The New Yorker, where fellow Harvard prof Jill Lepore (48) stops just short of calling Christensen a fraud. She attacks her famous Harvard colleague mercilessly, using 6 000 words in an effort to lay his celebrated theory to waste.

Bloomberg Businessweek journalist Drake Bennett's article that followed a call he made to Christensen on Thursday is a near perfect rebuttal. For me anyway. Having studied Christensen's work, and enjoyed the privilege of meeting the man, it will take far more than an offended colleague to change my mind. But judging from the media furore it has created, Lepore has gotten what she was after. Her 15 minutes of fame means she is no longer an invisible professor of American history. Then again, perhaps that's all she ever will be.