INSEAD’s W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne along with Harvard’s Michael Porter and the late Clayton Christensen honoured for their paradigm-breaking research in Harvard Business Review’s 100th anniversary celebration
Leading figures from business, academia, the arts and foreign affairs gathered at the Lincoln Center in New York City yesterday (March 7th) to honour INSEAD’s W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne as well as Harvard Business School’s Michael Porter and Clay Christensen as the four leading thinkers for the global impact of their research and ideas.
The honour, part of Harvard Business Review’s 100th anniversary celebration, is fitting recognition of Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne’s important research journey, which seeks to understand how to go beyond zero-sum, win-lose paradigms to achieve positive-sum outcomes that create a larger economic pie for all.
The professors’ academic partnership began over 30 years ago at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, United States. After joining INSEAD they continued their research in the field of strategy and innovation. They have published a series of influential articles in top academic and managerial journals like Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of International Business Studies, Harvard Business Review, and MIT Sloan Management Review.
Their first book, Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, was published in 2005. It has sold over four million copies, been translated into 47 languages, and is recognised as one of the most iconic and impactful strategy books ever written. In 2022, Harvard Business Review selected Blue Ocean Strategy as one of the magazine’s most influential and innovative articles over the last 100 years.
In 2017, Kim and Mauborgne followed this up with the New York Times, #1 Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Los Angeles Times bestseller Blue Ocean Shift: Beyond Competing. To date, Blue Ocean Strategy and Blue Ocean Shift teaching materials have been adopted by nearly 3,000 universities across the globe.
At INSEAD, the Blue Ocean Strategy Institute was established in 2007 in honour of Kim and Mauborgne’s work, and to foster the further application and development of these ideas. INSEAD also runs dedicated executive Blue Ocean courses several times a year, as well as Blue Ocean electives for MBA students on both its Europe and Asia campuses.
Kim and Mauborgne’s work has garnered numerous global awards and honours over the years and has generated many success stories in the business world. Their research has inspired the creation of the Blue Ocean Awards for companies. First launched in France in 2014, the Awards are now rapidly expanding across the globe, from South Africa to India with plans to soon extend to the US. It also led to the creation of the Blue Ocean High School Competition, based out of the US, which was started by high school students inspired by the relevance of their research. It has grown to become the largest virtual pitch competition in the world for high school students. This year the competition attracted more than 5,200 high school students from 146 countries and 46 US states.
This May will see the release of their latest book, Beyond Disruption: Innovate and Achieve Growth without Displacing Industries, Companies, or Jobs. It introduces the theory of nondisruptive creation—creation without destruction or disruption, advancing their research in the field of innovation. It pioneers a new path to innovation and growth, showing how business and society can thrive together.
Quote from Professors’ Kim and Mauborgne: “We are humbled by this award. To be recognized as two of the four leading thinkers in HBR’s 100th anniversary celebration is a true honour. We are grateful to HBR for this award and to INSEAD for the school’s support over the years. Our sincere appreciation also goes to all the people who have helped us on our long research journey. We hope that our research, and the research of our INSEAD colleagues, can inspire leaders of business and society and make a positive difference to the world.”
INSEAD Dean Ilian Mihov, who attended the event, said: “It was a pleasure to honour Renee and Chan for the incredible impact they have made, and continue to make, on management education and business strategy. Thousands of companies are now applying their ideas to build the responsible and effective businesses needed for our economies. Their work is an embodiment of INSEAD's commitment to rigorous and relevant research that seeks impactful solutions to real-world problems and drives our mission to be a force for good for business and society.”
