Rita McGrath

Summary

Rita McGrath, one of the world’s top experts on strategy and innovation, is consistently ranked among the top 10 management thinkers globally and has earned the #1 award for strategy by Thinkers 50. She leads the Rita McGrath Group and is the founder of consultancy and innovation platform Valize, a company that helps organizations build true innovation and change proficiency, based on her pioneering work on Discovery Driven Growth. She is a long-time professor at Columbia Business School and has authored 5 popular books on leadership, business and organizational management. A trusted partner and strategic advisor in the C-suites of many of the world’s biggest and most well-known companies, Rita is a go-to advisor for leaders and senior teams, helping them grow, evolve, strategize, innovate and embrace an uncertain future with confidence. She is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on strategic inflection points, the topic of her most recent book - Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen. Her work on discovery-driven growth was praised by the late legendary management thinker Clayton Christensen as offering “some of the most important tools of management and strategy that have ever been developed.” Known for her energy, positivity, storytelling, and ability to connect with audiences, Rita is a sought-after corporate speaker and a long-time professor at Columbia Business School where she leads its popular Executive Education course ‘Leading Strategic Growth and Change,’ frequently guest lectures and is active in a number of initiatives including the launch of the Human Future of Work program, a project engaging with senior HR leaders to re-imagine the workplace of the future. The author and host of the popular podcast and newsletter Thought Sparks, Rita regularly sits down with high-level authors and leaders in her Fireside Chat series on YouTube. She is one of the most frequent contributors to the Harvard Business Review and other premier journals. She has received many awards for her scholarly impact, including the prestigious C. K. Prahalad award from the Strategic Management Society, the “Theory to Practice” award from the Vienna Strategy Forum and multiple “best book” awards. A proud graduate of Barnard College (B.A.), the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs (M.P.A), and the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania (PhD), Rita also co-leads the Silicon Guild, a group of thought leaders and best-selling authors who write about trends in business, society and culture.