The once-in-two year much-anticipated Thinker 50 award for 2013 went to innovation guru Clayton Christensen. Christensen joins managements legends Peter Drucker and C K Prahalad to win this award twice.

The less celebrated but significant is Navi Radjou winning the Innovation Award beating several celebrities. Radjou is a fellow of the Cambridge Judge Business School, where he is the former director of the Centre for India & Global Business. He is co-author (with Jaideep Prabhu and Simone Ahuja) of Jugaad Innovation: Think Frugal, Be Flexible, Generate Breakthrough Growth (Jossey Bass, 2012); and (with Prasad Kaipa) From Smart to Wise (Jossey Bass, 2013).

Indian born management gurus have improved their performance this year while, for the first time, the Chinese have made an entry. Among the Indians Vijay Govindarajan slipped a bit to the fifth position this year compared to third in 2011. Vijay Govindarajan is the Earl C. Daum 1924 professor of international business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. His work is at the intersection of strategy and innovation. His books include Reverse Innovation (with Chris Trimble, 2012).

Pankaj Ghemawat improved his ranking significantly in 2013 to 11 from 27 in 2011. Nominated for the 2013 Thinkers50 Global Solutions Award for his Global Connectedness Index, Ghemawat is based at New York’s Stern school and IESE Business School in Spain. Prior to that he was the youngest full professor at Harvard Business School. His 2011 book World 3.0 won the Thinkers50 Book Award.

Nirmalya Kumar improved his showing from 26 in 2011 to 20 in 2013. He is the recently appointed director of strategy at Tata Group. He was previously professor of marketing at London Business School and is the author of Private Label Strategy and India Inside, among others. His most recent book is Brand Breakout (2013).

However, Nitin Nohria’s ranking slipped to 21 from 13 in 2011. Prof. Nohria is the dean of Harvard Business School. Prolific and insightful, his books include Driven: How Human Nature Shapes our Choices (2001); The Arc of Ambition (with Jim Champy, 2000); and What Really Works: The 4+2 Formula for Sustained Business Success (with William Joyce and Bruce Roberson, 2003).

Subir Chowdhury improved his ranking a bit from 50 to 40. Dr. Chowdhury is chairman and CEO of ASI Consulting Group. Tagged “The Quality Prophet,” by Business Week, Chowdhury is author of The Power of Six Sigma: An Inspiring Tale of How Six Sigma is Transforming the Way We Work (2001), and, most recently, of The Power of LEO: The Revolutionary Process for Achieving Extraordinary Business Results (2011).
Anil Gupta had a peek into the listing for the first time and was ranked at 44. Dr. Anil K Gupta is the Michael D. Dingman Chair in Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the Smith School of Business, the University of Maryland and a visiting professor at INSEAD. He is also chief advisor to the China India Institute, a Washington DC-based research and consulting firm. He is the author of Global Strategies for Emerging Asia (2012) and (with Haiyan Wang) of Getting China and India Right (Wiley, 2009). He and Haiyan Wang were shortlisted for the 2013 Thinkers50 Global Solutions Award.

Rakesh Khurana slipped slightly to 46 from 41. Dr. Khurana is the Marvin Bower professor of leadership development at Harvard Business School, Khurana is probably best known for Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs (2002) and his 2007 book From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession.

Chinese enter Thinkers 50

Liu Chuanzhi is China’s first showing in Thinkers 50 award and was ranked a respectable 31. The Chairman of Legend Holdings Limited, and the Founder and Honorary Chairman of Lenovo Group Limited, Liu Chuanzhi started the business with a $24,000 loan from the Chinese government in 1984. His leadership emphasizes the core management team, strategy and execution – seeking to take the best Western management theories and apply them to the reality of creating a Chinese-based global brand. Lenovo is now the second-largest computer group in the world.

The second Chinese incursion into the hallowed award list was Wang Shi at 50. A mountaineer who has scaled Everest as well as many of the world’s other great peaks, Wang Shi is founder and chairman of Vanke, the world’s largest residential home developer. He has also been a visiting scholar at Harvard, led China’s first and largest entrepreneur organization, is involved with a variety of philanthropic organizations, and is the author of Ladder of the Soul (2011). He was shortlisted for the 2013 Thinkers50 Leadership Award.

Lafley ranked 26

The chairman, president, and CEO of Procter & Gamble, Lafley led the company’s renaissance and then retired in 2010. At that point the former management consultant concentrated on thought leadership. He co-authored the bestseller Playing to Win (with Roger Martin, 2013) which won the 2013 Thinkers 50 Best Book award. He rejoined P&G in May 2013.