Home / Quotes / Quote by Clayton Christensen

Quote by Clayton Christensen

“If the theory accurately predicts what they [scientists] see, it confirms that it's a good theory. If they see something that the theory didn't lead them to believe, that's what Thomas Kuhn calls an anomaly. The anomaly requires a revised theory - and you just keep going through the cycle, making a better theory.”

Quote by Clayton Christensen

Author

Clayton Christensen

Clayton M. Christensen is an esteemed professor known for his contributions to the fields of business management and innovation. Born on April 6, 1952, he is a professor at Harvard Business School and the author of 'The Innovator's Dilemma'. more

You May Also Like

“Ultimately, when you come up with a classification scheme that is collectively exhaustive and mutually exclusive, then the theory can become what Kuhn called a paradigm.”

Theory Come Up Schemes Exclusive Paradigm Classification

Author:Clayton Christensen

“In the study of management, unfortunately, many writers have been so anxious to articulate a theory in the form of, "If you do this, this will result," that they never go through this careful effort.”

Ifs Has Beens Form Results Effort Study Theory Management Careful Anxious

Author:Clayton Christensen

“Often they [writers on the study of management] have a point of view based upon intuition and experience. They then offer a cadence of two-paragraph examples carefully selected to "prove" their theory, and then they write "one size fits all" books. The message is, "If you'd do what these companies did, you'd be successful too."”

“One reason there are so many short-lived management fads is that their prescriptions were derived and advocated in precisely this way. So managers read about a fad and try it, find that it doesn't work, abandon the effort, and move on to the next thing. In reality, it is usually the case that the faddish prescription was indeed sound advice in certain circumstances, but actually was poor advice in other circumstances.”

Way Trying Reason Reality Moving Certain Next Sound Poor Effort Cases Advice Circumstances Management Managers Abandon Prescriptions Fads Short Lived Sound Advice

Author:Clayton Christensen

“Year after year after year, people write books about managing innovation or about leadership, for example, without ever going through the pain of saying, "This kind of leadership will cause this result in these circumstances and a very different result in those circumstances." This is academic malpractice of the worst kind.”

People Writing Years Kind Book Different Pain Causes Results Worst Example Circumstances Innovation Academic Malpractice

Author:Clayton Christensen

“I've concluded that getting the categories right is an absolutely crucial step to building useful management theory, and unfortunately too few writers do this. You've got to engage in serious scholarship, and then figure out how to write it in a way that lots of people can understand.”

People Way Writing Steps Figures Building Serious Theory Management Categories Crucial Scholarship

Author:Clayton Christensen

“I was lucky enough to build on the work of a number of people who had already run laps around this theory-building track. The original classification scheme, years ago, distinguished radical from incremental change. The theory said that established firms managed incremental change well, but would be expected to founder when their industry encountered a radical change.”

“If you want to make better theory, you've got to use the best that's available and look through the lens of another discipline to see if you can uncover more anomalies. By looking at the phenomena of failure from the perspective of sales, marketing, finance, general management, and the equity markets, I was able to see things that Rebecca [Henderson] hadn't.”

Ifs Want Looks Use Able Theory Perspective Discipline Management Marketing Available Finance Lenses Equity Anomalies Rebecca

Author:Clayton Christensen

“If you ask the average guy on the street to name five companies that have truly transformed themselves over the few decades, Hewlett-Packard would be on everybody's list. You'd also put on this list GE and Johnson & Johnson.”

Ifs Would Be Guy Asks Names Company Five Streets Average Decades Lists Transformed Johnson

Author:Clayton Christensen

“The transformation at the corporate level was achieved by selling off business units in old markets and by creating new business units to pursue the new opportunities. But the individual business units themselves within those transformed corporations were almost inert to change.”

Opportunity Individual Levels Creating Transformation Selling Pursue Corporate Corporations Transformed Units New Opportunity New Business

Author:Clayton Christensen