Remembering Clayton Christensen: Guru of Innovative Technology | National Review — nationalreview.com

Clayton Christensen at a TED Talks in 2012 (via YouTube) The guru of innovative technology leaves a legacy that extends well beyond the business world. Read through the marketing materials for a given startup and one adjective will inevitably appear: “disruptive.” The term “disruptive technology” might induce semantic satiation nowadays, but the man who coined it, Clayton Christensen, is one of the godfathers of the modern technology industry. Christensen died Thursday after a year undergoing treatment for leukemia. He was 67. Standing six-foot eight and always wearing a suit, he did not look like the typical Silicon Valley guru. In the ethos of the tech industry in the 1990s — a time when software engineers were still called “hackers” — the Harvard Business School professor and devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints could not have been more out of place. But his 1997 book The Innovator’s Dilemma became the bible of Palo Alto. The book argued that incumbent businesses fail to capitalize on innovation because disruptive technologies tend to provide low profit margins and often create new markets rather than compete in existing ones. It famously left an impression on several tech CEOs, including Intel’s Andy Grove, Apple’s Steve Jobs, and Netflix’s Reed Hastings. Christensen was born to a working-class family in Salt Lake City. As a boy, he took to politics, closely following the Congressional Record, and in high school he made the all-state basketball team. As an undergraduate at Brigham Young, Christensen spent two years in South Korea as a missionary and received a Rhodes scholarship to study econometrics at Oxford. He went from Oxford to Harvard Business School before starting his career at Boston Consulting Group. In the 1980s, he founded an advanced-materials company called CPS Technologies, but his academic inclination led him back to Harvard as a business-school professor in 1992. It was there that Christensen’s study of disk drives led him to undertake a wide-ranging survey of technological development. He discovered that, although new products tend to be inferior to their predecessors, their lower cost leads to mass adoption, driving a virtuous circle in which the new technology is rapidly improved and dislodges competitors. In industry after industry, from steel to microchips, the same trend emerged. Christensen’s work caught the attention of Andy Grove, who invited him to the Intel offices for a meeting. After hearing Christensen explain his theory, Grove decided to focus on low-cost PCs, which ended up dominating the market. It was a time of rapid change in information technology, a time when storied firms were collapsing and newcomers were commanding astronomical valuations. Christensen’s narrative imposed order on an industry that sorely needed it. To this day, entrepreneurs hate suits. The founder-CEOs of Silicon Valley view themselves as creative pioneers and management executives as mere profit-boosters. But alone among the stodgy crop of Ivy League MBAs, Christensen married the irreverent spirit of innovation to the staid pragmatism of the case study. His unique blend of analytical prowess, storytelling ability, and passion for innovation left an indelible mark on the tech industry. Yet Christensen’s work had other applications. It could be interpreted as a philosophy of the well-lived life, one that prizes the durable and intangible, teaching the importance of deferred gratification. In an address at Harvard, Christensen argued that the short-term thinking that causes business failure also causes individual failure: “It’s really not until 20 years down the road that you can put your hands on your hips and say, ‘I raised a good son or a good daughter.’” Though his lessons have been most popular in the corporate realm, with such companies as Amazon proving that losing money in the short term is worth long-term value creation, Christensen’s legacy extends well beyond the boardroom.

Read More



At the moment, the development of innovative technologies exceeds all expectations. It's great that there are people who are willing to invest in innovation and improve the lives of themselves and others.

3 years ago

Found a selection of useful Google applications that will help you in your studies and work. Applications are free and multifunctional. More details here: https://justbuyessay.com/blog/google-apps-for-education

Different Effective Ways to Use Google Apps in Class – JustBuyEssay.com

Going Google in education means a win-win situation for teachers and students. For teachers, there is no need always to be present in class. Student receives a unique opportunity to learn the things faster and easier in case they started using education tools. Education apps allow studying remotely. It is very useful when a student is sick or overloaded with home duties, but should have started learning long before. Let's share how different schools and colleges use Google Apps for learning and share resources with each other. In this article, you will find various tips and tricks as well as what's new in the field of applications. Teachers simply love using Google apps to: Improve instructions Make job as a teacher easier Provide real world experiences to support student learning effectively and with high security level When they have no opportunity to stay in the classroom all the time, they can turn on the software and ask students to follow its instructions. Google apps also help to stimulate student’s learning through the number of colorful games, videos, and pictures. As far as most of the kids visualize things better until the end of the high school, they perceive things better when having an opportunity to watch an example. A real life example based on successful experience doubles the chances of memorizing the study material faster. Distant learning is hard to imagine without education tools that will present real effectiveness and security. Use these tools whenever you cannot attend classes for different reasons. This is a perfect approach to studying when a student has no time because of the part-time job or internship. After all, such activities usually provide students with more valuable experience so that some classes can be skipped. Education apps will help to catch up with the rest of your peers. Who Will Benefit? There are three groups of people who benefit from applying Google mobile and computer apps in and after the classes. They are: Teachers/professors Students Administrators We can also name parents as the latest technology makes it possible to control the progress of children remotely by watching study reports that include ranking, grades, GPA, and other important information. And there is no need to be an expert in Java, HTML, or any other programming languages to create corresponding websites and docs – education tools will do everything. There are many ways to use Google apps in order to create technological classroom these days. Such tips for education include: Create opportunities for blended learning Design and share collaborative files Distribute handouts Share solutions to problems and case studies Use online writing services to improve education and literacy Stress student exemplars Promote differentiation Response to Intervention (RTI) Quit lecturing when there is no need Visualize with the help of colorful education tools Work on better instructions Share free ideas Keep record of all students Post regular updates on education process Make up a guide of any complexity Create 100% Google classroom thanks to numerous apps for education A good example of the digital classroom is a tool known as a Chromebook. It may replace any traditional textbook in the world. We are not going to list all Google apps here, but it is worth mentioning such tool as Gmail which was first used to raise the level of communication between tutors and students. Many students use Google drive for storage and sharing information and teacher’s instructions for years. Google docs and other main productivity apps were designed to make academic and business life easier on the go. It prevents from the need to be always present at your workplace or in class and contact everyone needed online. Google Slides serve as an easy and online program for creating and editing the presentation. Among the less used we can outline such apps as Google Keep, Google Translate, Expeditions by Google, Science Journal, Google Cloud, Cloud Print, Calculator, Google Arts & Culture, and other products. What Are the Best Google Apps for Education The G Suite for Education Core Services named as “Core Services” are presented in the Services Summary and consist of such products of google for education as:  Gmail  Calendar Classroom (collaborates all communities) Contacts (personal/for groups/teaching communities) Drive Docs Forms Groups Sheets Sites Slides Hangouts Vault Chrome Sync.  Is Google Apps for Education free? A suite of the leading in class productivity tools was designed for both teaching and learning the particular content. That is why, G Suite for Education is free for students, teachers, and administrators. Moreover, it will remain free for schools in future as well, so everyone who desires to learn easier can apply. Top 6 free google apps for education Google Classroom. This app designed by google for education creates a virtual classroom. It aims to enhanced communication between students and teachers, improve organization of the learning process, fasten the grading process.\ Khan Academy. Khan Academy provides diverse online courses and training that help students prepare for standardized tests such as SAT, LSAT, MCAT,  and others. The platform aims to help students learn in multiple languages aside from English, track their learning progress, and practise numerous exercises. edX. edX app integrates different courses and training for building a professional career. You can get professional certificates as well as university credit after finishing any of the courses. The platform aims to provide video tutorials, study material handouts, and keep students interested throughout the whole learning process with interactive quizzes.  Duolingo. Duolingo app tracks student’s performance in order to integrate some insights and unlock new levels and tasks created to improve reading and listening comprehension.This app supports more than 30 languages aside from English, has different interactive stories, forum discussion, language learning events, and leaderboards competitions. Quizlet. Quizlet consists of millions of flashcards. A student can also create flashcards in the topic he/she is interested in, and share the created ones with the other students and express their own creativity. This app contains a lot of gaming activities and gives numerous study reminders. Here, students can practice tests, study different sets for standardized exams, and use custom images or audio materials to enhance learning. Udemy. Udemy is an exciting tool to learn different content at our own creativity pace. For example, if students feel stuck at a particular lesson, they can ask many direct questions to the other students or instructors with higher level of course knowledge. Using this free app students get expert instructors to get higher grades, join community discussions, create community surveys, and have interactive learning. We believe that we have mentioned the most valuable advantages of using Google apps when it comes to solving the main issue with education in the United States and all over the world. If you are not obtaining the best of modern technology yet, try to download and start using education-related Google apps today. In addition, turn to other efficient sources of knowledge such as online writing companies where you can order the essay or research paper of any difficulty to get the highest grades.

3 years ago

EssayBuyers is students’ all-time best assistant, who is always ready to lend you a helping hand and help them reach the top! We are a team of passionate and dedicated academic writers, who are the real masters of their craft. We are professional, we are reliable, we are committed to your success...

READ MORE
1 year ago

EssayBuyers is students’ all-time best assistant, who is always ready to lend you a helping hand and help them reach the top! We are a team of passionate and dedicated academic writers, who are the real masters of their craft. We are professional, we are reliable, we are committed to your success...

READ MORE
1 year ago

This site uses cookies to give the best and personalised experience. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Find out more here.

Sign Up or Login

Invalid username or password
Not yet on CircleMe? Join now
Please input a email
Please input a valid email
Max 50 characters
Email already in use
{{email_serverError}}
Please input a username
Min 3 characters
Max 20 characters
Please use only A-Z, 0-9 and "_"
Username is taken
Please input a password
Min 6 characters
Max 20 characters
By clicking the icons, you agree to CircleMe terms & conditions
Already have an account? Login Now