Know Your Author - Clayton Christensen, James Allworth, and Karen Dillon #How Will You Measure Your Life?

Welcome back to another Know Your Author Series with Discovery Shoppe Book Club 😁

A very happy new year to you from us at Discovery Shoppe!

Last year, we had a blast reading books by twelve amazing authors, including Jeff Bezos. This month, we are reading the book How Will You Measure Your Life? Finding Fulfilment Using Lessons From Some of the World's Greatest Businesses by Clayton M. Christensen and co-authors James Allworth and Karen Dillon.

Just as we have always done, we will be taking a sneak peek into the life of our authors of the month, Clayton M. Christensen, and co-authors, James Allworth and Karen Dillion.

By Onyedikachi Nwachukwu | Editor: Vivian Oguguo | Discovery Shoppe Book Club

Clayton Magleby Christensen

Clayton Magleby Christensen (April 6, 1952 – January 23, 2020) was an American academic and business consultant. He developed the "disruptive innovation" theory, which has been called the most influential business idea of the early 21st century. Christensen introduced "disruption" in his 1997 book "The Innovator's Dilemma," and it led The Economist to term him "the most influential management thinker of his time." He served as the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School (HBS).

He grew up in Utah, USA, and attended West High School, where he was the student body president. He was also a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), who served as a missionary in Korea from 1971 to 1973 and spoke fluent Korean. He took up several leadership roles in the church, including as an "Area Seventy" from 2002 to 2009, as a counselor to the presidency of the Massachusetts Boston Mission, and eventually, as a bishop. His book, The Power of Everyday Missionaries, was a leading work in the LDS Church on how all people could share the gospel no matter their position in the church. He also played a crucial role in the writing of the book "For All the Saints" by Kristen Smith Dayley on the history of the LDS Church in New England. The book was published in 2012, and Christensen wrote its foreword.

You should know that our high achieving, deeply religious author was not without hobbies. He was an exceptional basketball player, standing Six ft. 8 in (2.03 m) tall, and later became the Starting Center on the men's basketball team during his time at the University of Oxford. His team won the British University Sports Federation championships in 1975 and 1976 and the English Basketball Association's national championship for non-league teams in 1977.

Sadly, in February 2010, Christensen was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma, and in July 2010, he had an ischemic stroke that damaged his speech. This necessitated him to undergo speech therapy. Despite these challenges, our resilient author published two books in 2011, The Innovative University and The Innovator's DNA (Harvard Business Press), as well as the thought-provoking Prosperity Paradox in 2019. Christensen died from complications of leukemia on January 23, 2020, aged 67.

He may not have lived as long as he would have wanted to, but he very definitely left behind a great legacy. Look out for his lectures on YouTube.

James Allworth

James Allworth is the Head of Innovation at Cloudflare and co-host of the Exponent podcast. He is also co-author of the New York Times best-selling book, "How Will You Measure Your Life?” He graduated with dual degrees and First Class Honors from the Australian National University. Allworth attained an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he was named a Baker Scholar for results in the top 5% of his class.

He has worked in a range of tech companies and startups, including Apple and Medallia. He writes quite frequently and his writing has been featured on Harvard Business Review and on his personal blog on Medium. He worked as a research fellow with Professor Clayton Christensen at the Forum for Growth and Innovation. When he is not online, he is probably in a pool, in a yoga studio, or traveling somewhere off in search of adventure.

Karen Dillon

Karen Dillon is a co-author of three books with Clayton Christensen. These books are the New York Times best-seller, How Will You Measure Your Life? , Wall Street Journal best-seller, Competing against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice, and lastly, The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations out of Poverty (Thinkers50 finalist, Breakthrough Idea, 2019). She is also the author of The Harvard Business Review Guide to Office Politics.

Karen previously served as deputy editor of Inc. magazine and as editor of the critically-acclaimed American Lawyer magazine and London-based Legal Business. She is currently a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review and editorial director of Banyan Global Family Business Advisors. A graduate of Cornell University and Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, she was named by Ashoka as one of the world's most influential and inspiring women.

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed reading this as much as we enjoyed writing it. Most importantly, we hope this increases your love for our current read - How Will You Measure Your Life?

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