Clayton Christensen: The man who changed how we see disruptive innovation
Remembering the man, his ideas and body of work, through a professional association spanning 15 years
Neelima Mahajan
Senior Journalist
Hong Kong
From my base in Hong Kong, I oversee Roland Berger’s management magazine, Think:Act. I have a keen interest in management thought. Over a career spanning two decades, I have interviewed several thought leaders like C.K. Prahalad, Michael Porter, Philip Kotler, Clayton Christensen, Henry Mintzberg, Henry Chesbrough, Marshall Goldsmith and Gary Hamel, and Nobel Prize winners John Nash and Amartya Sen.
Before coming to Hong Kong, I spent four-and-a-half years in Beijing as editor of a China-focused business and management publication. China taught me many things, most of all it gave me a refreshing take on business. Prior to that, I was an International Visiting Scholar at the University of California Berkeley. There, I explored how publications need to evolve with changes in technology and reader habits, and business journalism in Silicon Valley. I was also awarded a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation fellowship as part of the Africa Reporting Project to write about coffee and climate change in Uganda, Africa.
I have worked with some of India’s best known publications such as Forbes India, The Times of India and Businessworld. In 2010, I received the Polestar Award for Excellence in IT and Business Journalism.
I have researched and edited books like Leading with Conviction (Jossey-Bass) by Shalom Saada Saar and Michael Hargrove, and Culture of the Sepulchre (Penguin India) by Madanjeet Singh. The second book is closely linked to my family’s personal history in East Africa.
My contributions
13 articles written
Deciphering the Chinese consumer
As P&G and L’Oreal discovered, the consumers are constantly evolving and arriving at the right mix of low-end and high-end offerings is not easy
Family comes first at Starbucks China
What can companies whose job roles don’t fit the traditional notions of a good career choice, do to retain staff? Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has a creative solution
The rise of the big spenders of China
The Chinese buy more and travel more, and brands are going out of their way to woo Chinese shoppers, both at home and abroad
Haier's quest for the perfect egg
White goods maker Haier is trying out ideas from manufacturing and internet technologies to egg production. Result: Efficiency at China's egg farms has improved tremendously
China steps towards intelligent manufacturing
China is committing itself to automation. If all goes as per plan, soon robots and automation will be the norm in Chinese factories
You are only as good as your next big idea
The days of relying on a single sustainable competitive advantage are over; companies must focus on spotting new sources of advantage, exploiting them fast, and quickly moving on
Farmville comes to real life - on a plot of land near you
Alibaba's group-buying website Juhuasuan lets urban users contract farmers to grow selected vegetables on spare plots of land and ship them back to them
How KFC battled the eight-legged chicken (and other stories)
Rumours and planted stories can make or mar a brand’s fortunes. Here's how to counter - or not counter - them
Baidu Waimai is finding its way into customers' hearts through their stomachs
Food delivery services like Baidu Waimai have found an opportunity in helping people try out new restaurants and restaurants expand their customer base