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Find out more about applying for the Rhodes Scholarship

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CLAYTON M. CHRISTENSEN

(Utah & Queen's 1975) (6 April 1952 - 23 January 2020)

Clayton M. Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School whose groundbreaking 1997 book, “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” outlined his theories about the impact of what he called “disruptive innovation”, died on Thursday at a hospital in Boston. He was 67.

Clayton studied Applied Econometrics at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar from 1975, graduated from Harvard Business School, and joined the Harvard Business School’s faculty in 1992. For many years he taught a course called “Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise.” He focused his theories on a wide range of industries, from education to health care. A former basketball star (he stood 6-foot-8) as well as an affable academic, he focused as much on a life well lived as he did on his management theories.

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