About the Christensen Institute
Our theory-based research and team values guide us in creating lasting impact.
Mission
The Clayton Christensen Institute enables policymakers, entrepreneurs, and leaders to radically improve entire sectors through rigorous research and community empowerment. Using Disruptive Innovation and other theories developed and taught by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen, we develop a clearer understanding of how the world works, so we can create meaningful progress in our world.
Values
- We practice humility, seeking out anomalies and new perspectives to deepen our understanding and expand our impact.
- We promote rigorous, theory-based research with the goal of sharpening our understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing innovators in both the public and private sector.
- We believe that theory can unlock new ways of tackling challenges by providing a new perspective and a common language that can unite people.
- We strive to identify long-term solutions to chronic challenges, not just quick fixes.
- We strive to create a culture of mutual respect and support so that we encourage and celebrate our colleagues’ work and achievements.
- We believe flexibility, care, and compassion are critical for all employees to thrive.
- We honor diversity of opinions, backgrounds, and experiences that can offer myriad lenses on persistent, systemic challenges.
History and Future
The Clayton Christensen Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization founded on the theories of late Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen. The Economist called his theory of Disruptive Innovation the most influential business idea of the early 21st Century. And Apple’s Steve Jobs, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Intel’s Andy Grove have all noted how he critically influenced their thinking on business management. His theories and values continue to guide our research on four markets and fields we’ve identified as having the most potential for positive social impact—so far: education, health care, global prosperity, and emerging industries. Where traditional solutions fall short in these fields, teaching the theory and conducting applied research can bridge chasms between current realities and societal progress.
How We Create Impact
Our ultimate goal is to support theory-driven innovations that unlock human potential at scale.
Innovation is traditionally a guessing game of “try-and-see” approaches to create impact. Instead, our sector-specific research is grounded in rigorous theory that offers a roadmap to transforming systems.
Funders partner with us for a myriad of reasons, including when they need help:
Converting vision to reality
Developing the strategy and tactics to ensure their investments create their intended impact in the field.
- For example, an international charitable foundation tasked us with designing a replicable program to deploy entrepreneurial capital across a continent effectively. The goal was to seed innovative markets that create sustainable job growth, especially for women, youth, and people with disabilities. The Institute delivered on this goal, working in close partnership with the foundation, entrepreneurs on the ground, and local and international investors. Along with a more than 120-page report, myriad consulting decks, and in-person workshops, the Institute and the foundation are moving forward in designing the implementation of this model in specific markets, with impact estimates ranging in thousands of jobs and billions in long-term market growth.
Pushing past intractable problems with ideas that move the field forward
Identifying opportunities for strategic progress that only theory can reveal.
- For example, a health care foundation asked us to uncover levers to reduce childhood obesity, specifically around sugar-sweetened beverages. While much research has been based on assumptions as to why some parents decide to limit or stop their child’s sugary beverage consumption, the Institute applied Jobs to Be Done Theory to know rather than assume what circumstances drive parents to make this decision. With this knowledge, the foundation can speak the language of those they’re directly trying to communicate with and influence. The insights produced in this report are the leverage needed to drive behavior change, primarily through public health advocacy. Specifically, the “language” the report provided can be used for public health messaging and ad campaigns to drive down consumption at the population level.
Furthering a leadership position among peers and competitors
Adding rigor and integrity to their brand and work by applying the Institute’s and Clayton Christensen’s powerful insights and theories.
- For example, along with philanthropic foundations, a statistical research firm partnered with the Institute to have exclusive rights over the research’s intellectual IP. This unique partnership happened because the Institute was the first to define and coin “Blended Learning,” and we were uniquely positioned to design and complete a nationwide, two-year study on online and blended learning practices during and post-COVID. Because of the Institute’s established credibility in the education space and strong media relations, the report helped garner long-tail national media attention in over 75+ outlets (including The Boston Globe, Edutopia, NPR, Forbes, PBS, The Economist, Hechinger, RealClear, AEI, Education Week, etc.) for the foundations and, specifically, the firm.
Advancing new fields
Nurturing fledgling innovations by supporting supply of and demand for new solutions, R&D efforts, and visibility through the Institute’s research, dissemination, and advocacy.
- For example, with support from over 10 national education foundations, the Institute has been instrumental in aiding efforts to expand students’ social capital—arming more young people, particularly those furthest from opportunity, with the networks they need to thrive in work and in life. We created a host of initiatives including: an R&D network of leading innovators working to deepen and diversify students’ networks to promote economic mobility; a fieldwide social capital learning agenda to coordinate and elevate research in the field; a playbook for schools and nonprofits to help young people develop social capital; and a social capital funder learning network to keep philanthropic leaders apprised of progress and opportunities in both research and practice. These efforts have helped to integrate social capital as a core component of career pathways strategies, and made it a more explicit feature of many education and workforce grantmakers’ strategies to promote economic mobility.
Our Approach
Our cyclical, multi-faceted approach ignites impact by creating momentum around innovations that radically expand access, affordability, and progress:
How We Measure Impact
Our work diagnoses and recommends solutions to seemingly intractable problems. We measure the impact of our work through:
- Reach [early indicator]: Ideas aren’t helpful if no one hears them, so we pulse check via KPIs, including website traffic and analytics, newsletter subscribers, social media engagement, and inbound questions and comments from readership.
- Influence [short-term indicator]: We look for signals that our ideas are resonating via credible media mentions; earned media coverage; and inbound requests from media, podcasters, and event hosts.
- Adoption [long-term indicator]: We monitor whether businesses change, policies shift, or innovators build new models by entrenching ourselves within our communities of practice, including our funder network, to ensure stakeholders feel supported and empowered by our actionable research. Partnerships run deep, and internal processes remain transparent for maximum feedback via dedicated network meetings and chats, surveys and participant polls, as well as in-person workshops and events.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion
We firmly believe that embracing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) drives innovation, improves research, and contributes to equitable access to education, health care, and prosperity for all.
At the Christensen Institute, that means:
- Seeking out diverse perspectives on our team and through our partnerships,
- Promoting a culture of flexibility and care that values wellbeing and authenticity, and
- Producing research focused on long-term, systemic solutions that address barriers to societal progress and unlock human potential.
Seeking out diverse perspectives
We believe that by seeking out anomalies and new perspectives, we can deepen our understanding of complex issues and expand the impact of our work. We do this by fostering a culture of humility that values diverse opinions, backgrounds, and experiences that can expand our understanding of persistent and systemic challenges.
Promoting a positive and supportive culture
We strive to create a culture of mutual respect and support, recognizing that flexibility, trust, and compassion are critical for all employees to thrive. We celebrate each other’s victories and we support each other in our times of challenge.
Producing research focused on long-term, systemic solutions
Our goal is not to identify solutions that only address superficial symptoms, but to transform systems in ways that fundamentally expand access to more equitable opportunities across education, health care, and economic pursuits. We promote rigorous, theory-based research with the goal of sharpening our understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing innovators across society. In that process, we seek to apply innovation theory to provide a new perspective and a common understanding that can unite people around long-term solutions.
