Toronto – The University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management was the sole Canadian school represented on the bi-annual Thinkers50 ranking of world’s leading management thinkers. Three of its faculty members associated with the Martin Prosperity Institute (MPI) were named to the Thinkers50 list at a gala dinner in London, UK on November 11, including two in the top ten.
Prof. Roger Martin, the former dean of the Rotman School and current academic director of its MPI, placed 3rd on the list, up from 6th in 2011. He is best known for his work on Integrative Thinking as a means of solving complex problems.
Prof. Martin also received the Thinkers50 Book Award for his last book, co-authored by AG Lafley, Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, published by Harvard Business Review Press, earlier this year. The award was give out to the book which had made the most outstanding contribution to management thinking over the last two years
Don Tapscott, an adjunct professor and fellow at the MPI, placed 4th on the list, up from 6th in 2011. He is considered to be a leading authority on innovation, media, globalization and the economic and social impact of technology on business and society.
Tapscott also received the Thinkers50 Global Solutions Award recognizing him as doing the most significant work in the world over the last two years about how to solve global problems. He is currently working on the Global Solution Networks program – an investigation into new models for global governance, cooperation and problem solving.
Prof. Richard Florida, a director at the MPI, made his debut on the Thinkers 50 list placing 25th. He is globally recognized for his leading work on the creative class, innovation and the drivers of city prosperity.
For the second consecutive ranking, Prof. Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School, the originator of the theory of disruptive innovation, placed first.
This year’s ranking was notable for the increasing number of women represented on the list as well as diversity of countries represented. Remarkably, the nationality punching well above its demographic weight is Canada, with two thinkers in the top 10 with the Rotman School’s Prof. Roger Martin and Don Tapscott. In addition, Canadian Syd Finkelstein, a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College made the list for the first time.
“Interesting times demand interesting ideas,” say Thinkers50 creators Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove. “There is a real sense that how we view business and how business is practised is changing. The ideas of the people featured in the Thinkers50 make a difference on the factory floor and in the boardrooms of the world. In business, ideas matter because they can be the difference between success and failure.”
Further information on the Thinkers50 awards and program is online at www.thinkers50.com.
The Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto is redesigning business education for the 21st century with a curriculum based on Integrative Thinking. Located in the world’s most diverse city, the Rotman School fosters a new way to think that enables the design of creative business solutions. For more information, visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca.
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For more information:
Ken McGuffin
Manager, Media Relations
Rotman School of Management
University of Toronto
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E-mail mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca
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