Fascinating piece by the HBS professor Clay Christensen in the latest HBR. It’s based on a talk he was asked to give to the MBA class of 2010 who asked for some life lessons.
Christensen, like Michael Porter and Robert Merton, is one of the handful of b-school professors who tower above the institutions where they teach.
When I published Ahead of the Curve, HBS, in particular Professor Joseph Badaracco, the holder of the school’s ethics chair, complained furiously about my observations regarding the tendency of very smart people from HBS and other schools to end up in jail. Yet here is Christensen discussing the very same issue.
The school also protested about my depiction of HBS as a “factory for unhappy people”. Yet, this is the very issue Christensen has chosen to address.
Amazing what a recession will do.
Philip Delves Broughton 