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Applying Business Theories

In: Business and Management

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RESEARCH & IDEAS

Applying Business Theories to Your Life
Published: June 4, 2012 Author: Carmen Nobel Scholarly economic theory applies to more than just business. The same causal mechanisms that drive big corporations to success can be just as effective in driving our personal lives, says Professor Clayton M. Christensen. Key concepts include: • In evaluating major life decisions, it's helpful to employ a tool called discovery-driven planning, which essentially boils down to a single question: What assumptions must prove true for this plan to work? • Incentives are not the same things as motivators. • Marginal thinking can be dangerous. It's safer to decide early on that you'll stay true to your commitments 100 percent the time, rather than assess the risk of every "just this once" possibility that comes along. Intel Corp. and the Pentagon, for example. In 2011, Thinkers50 named him the world's most influential business thinker. At the same time, he has held major leadership positions in his church, and he's never taken a business meeting on a Sunday because his faith encourages its members to keep the Sabbath Day holy. He sees no dichotomy. "You know, it's a travesty that somehow our society has gotten to a point where people have the view that science and academia are inconsistent with a spiritual life, and the belief that there we've been put here for a purpose," he says. "The reality is that the only reason you're interested in either of these things is that you're interested in finding the truth. We spend most of our waking hours in our professions, but if we can't allow success in our professions to benefit from truth that we have learned in the other parts of our lives, we just deprive ourselves of a very important input." Christensen explores the synergies between economic logic and personal conviction in his new book, How Will You Measure Your Life?

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