SIGN UP FOR FREE | SIGN IN
Thinkers360
Interested in getting your own thought leader profile? Get Started Today.

Rita McGrath

Founder at Valize

New York, United States

Columbia Business School’s Rita McGrath is a best-selling author, a sought-after advisor and a speaker. Rita is considered one of the world’s top experts on strategy and innovation. She is the winner of the 2022 CK Prahalad award for scholarly impact on practice from the Strategic Management Society, and in the same year was inducted into the Business Excellence Hall of Fame. She ranks among the top 10 management thinkers globally, including the #1 award for strategy by Thinkers50. Rita’s most recent book is Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019). Rita is the author of four other books, including the best-selling The End of Competitive Advantage (Harvard Business Review Press, 2013).

Rita is one of the most widely published authors in the Harvard Business Review, including the best-selling article “Discovery Driven Planning” (1995), which was recognized as an early articulation of today’s “lean” startup philosophy and was praised by Clayton Christensen as one of the most important ideas in management - ever. She is also a highly-respected academic researcher whose work has won awards from the most prestigious management journals.

On the lighter side, she was named by Fast Company Magazine as one of the 25 smartest women to follow on Twitter.

Rita is recognized as one of a small group of experts who have built today’s best-in-class innovation practices. She has won many awards for her work and impact, including the “Theory to Practice” award from the Vienna Strategy Forum and multiple “best book” awards for her work.

Rita joined Columbia Business School in 1993. Prior to life in academia, she was an IT director, worked in the political arena, and founded two startups. She received her Ph.D. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and has degrees with honors from Barnard College and the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. She is active on all the main social media platforms, such as Twitter @rgmcgrath.

She is married and is proud to be the mother of two delightful grownups.

For more information, visit RitaMcGrath.com.

Available For: Advising, Authoring, Consulting, Speaking
Travels From: New York, NY
Speaking Topics: The new strategy playbook, Seeing Around Corners, Winning Through Innovation

Rita McGrath Points
Academic 0
Author 342
Influencer 408
Speaker 3
Entrepreneur 20
Total 773

Points based upon Thinkers360 patent-pending algorithm.

Thought Leader Profile

Portfolio Mix

Company Information

Company Type: Company
Minimum Project Size: N/A
Average Hourly Rate: N/A
Number of Employees: 1-10
Company Founded Date: 2016
Media Experience: 30 years
Last Media Training: 12/27/2023
Last Media Interview: 12/27/2023

Areas of Expertise

AI 30.03
Analytics 30.04
Business Strategy 41.41
Careers 30.16
Change Management 35.99
Coaching
Creativity 30.22
Customer Experience
Digital Disruption
Digital Transformation 30.04
Economics 31.17
Ecosystems
Emerging Technology 30.05
Entrepreneurship 33.78
Future of Work 30.02
Innovation 33.24
Leadership 31.11
Lean Startup
Management 42.43
Startups
Sustainability 30.08
Transformation 30.10

Industry Experience

Aerospace & Defense
Agriculture & Mining
Building Materials, Clay & Glass
Chemicals
Consumer Products
Engineering & Construction
Federal & Public Sector
Financial Services & Banking
Forest Products & Paper
Healthcare
High Tech & Electronics
Higher Education & Research
Insurance
Manufacturing
Metal Products
Pharmaceuticals
Professional Services
Retail
Telecommunications
Utilities

Publications & Experience

33 Article/Blogs
Is your hit product a ‘gateway product’?
FastCompany
January 28, 2026
Remember the Flip video recorder? In 2009, it was a sensation—a dead-simple, pocket-size recorder that let ordinary people capture and share moments without lugging around a camcorder or figuring out complicated settings. Cisco acquired Flip’s maker, Pure Digital Technologies, for $590 million in stock. Two years later, Cisco shut Flip down entirely.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Innovation, Leadership

2026: What we’re watching (when we’re not thinking about AI)
Import from medium.com
January 14, 2026
Most predictions are wrong. But it’s still important to pay attention to the weak signals of change. Here are five topics I’m watching in…Continue reading on Medium »

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Leadership, Management

The Turning Point: Why 2025 Gave Us Reason for Both Hope and Worry
Import from medium.com
December 17, 2025
As we close out another turbulent year, I find myself returning to the work of economic historian Carlota Perez, whose framework for…Continue reading on Medium »

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Leadership, Management

AI, Meet the Billable Hour Business Model
Import from medium.com
December 09, 2025
On December 4, 2025, I published a short article in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Say Goodbye to the Billable Hour, Thanks to AI.” Who…Continue reading on Medium »

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Leadership, Management

Say Goodbye to the Billable Hour, Thanks to AI
The Wall Street Journal
December 04, 2025
With AI taking over their grunt work, lawyers and other professionals may have to charge for outcomes rather than time spent.

See publication

Tags: AI, Innovation, Leadership

Why dynamic pricing is becoming the rule, not the exception
FastCompany
December 04, 2025

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Leadership, Management

How' good enough' products are disrupting premium pricing
FastCompany
November 20, 2025
In an environment where technology reduces costs and simplifies solutions, the basis of competition is shifting from traditional excellence to "good enough." This means that simpler technologies or models (such as ebooks, digital games, or streaming fitness services) undermine the ability to charge high prices for more sophisticated products. The article explores examples and proposes that, to maintain pricing power, companies must innovate their business models, build value ecosystems, and create advantages that cannot be easily imitated.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Digital Transformation, Innovation

Malls Destroyed Urban Centers — Now We Want Human Connections Back
Import from medium.com
November 19, 2025
It’s easy to forget that once upon a time, the modern shopping mall was considered revolutionary. All these fabulous stores in one place…Continue reading on Medium »

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Leadership, Management

How to build a modern supply chain
FastCompany
October 21, 2025
Introducing the right technology in the right way can be redefining for companies

See publication

Tags: AI, Creativity, Innovation

What the Tilly Norwood moment should teach us
FastCompany
September 14, 2025
Ignore weak signals at your peril.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Change Management, Management

The Gen Z Crisis
Import from medium.com
July 22, 2025
Generation Z — born between 1997 and 2012 — are preparing for college, entering the workforce, and are at the beginning of their…Continue reading on Medium »

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Leadership, Management

The Great Productivity Paradox: Why We Measure Everything Except What Makes Life Worth Living
Import from medium.com
July 08, 2025
Since the days of Adam Smith, we have credited rising living standards with an improvement in productivity, typically manufacturing…Continue reading on Medium »

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Leadership, Management

Why you would have a strategic edge if you’d attended “Leading Strategic Growth and Change” in the…
Import from medium.com
June 24, 2025
t’s fun to reflect on how my course “Leading Strategic Growth and Change” has evolved over the years. I first took over as the Faculty…Continue reading on Medium »

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Leadership, Management

The Merger Mirage: The Triumph of Hope over Experience
Import from medium.com
June 10, 2025
Synergy. Market expansion. Gaining share. Cost savings. Diversification. Talent acquisition. Owning a unique asset. Moving into a…Continue reading on Medium »

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Leadership, Management

High-quality service jobs and the advent of a new golden age?
Import from medium.com
May 13, 2025
As MIT’s Zeynep Ton has pointed out, the U.S. suffers from a deluge of bad jobs, many in the service sector. While some suggest trying to…Continue reading on Medium »

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Leadership, Management

Innovation Growth in the Lynchpin Industries
Columbia Business School
August 12, 2024
Innovation Growth in the Lynchpin Industries: Challenges and Strategies for Agriculture, Construction & Transportation

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Change Management, Management

The failure facade
Dialogue Review
May 21, 2024
Failure is as unfashionable as ever. And that’s a problem.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Change Management, Management

A case Study of How to Accelerate Progress in Leadership Diversity
SHRM
February 22, 2024
Companies aiming to improve diversity in its top leadership ranks would be wise to follow the successes and lessons learned in the BOLD leadership development program.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Innovation, Transformation

Who Learns Fastest, Wins: Lean Startup and Discovery Driven Growth
Journal of Management
February 24, 2023
Most entrepreneurial ventures fail. Most corporate ventures fail too, often more expensively. Against this backdrop, Lean Startup and Discovery‑Driven Growth (DDG) are methods that emphasize rapid learning, resource parsimony, and an intense focus on validating assumptions as ways of reducing the cost and risk of failure.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Innovation, Management

The Radical Reshaping of Global Trade
Harvard Business Review
February 01, 2023
Summary. The world is shifting from a global trade order to a devolved one in which bilateral agreements, multiple spheres of influence, and self-interested government policies are likely to loom large. Companies should prepare now for a new, fragmented, non-system that will operate in a “permissionless” manner, where organizations will leverage technology to provide coordination amongst stakeholders. The view of globalization as an arm-in-arm march forward has officially been shattered. As companies navigate the reality of new spheres of influence, and bilateral, rules-based trading agreements, those who can build organizations that are resilient and permissionless will benefit the most.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Innovation, Sustainability

The Permissionless Corporation
Harvard Business Review
January 11, 2023
Technology is empowering employees to make their own decisions. Organizational structures need to catch up.

See publication

Tags: Careers, Future of Work, Innovation

The Permissionless Corporation
Harvard Business Review
January 01, 2023
Technology is empowering employees to make their own decisions. Organizational structures need to catch up. by Rita McGrath and Ram Charan

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Emerging Technology, Innovation

What Will Management Look Like in the Next 100 Years?
Harvard Business Review
September 19, 2022
A panel of global experts weigh in on the practices that will — or should — change.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Economics, Management

Does Your Strategy Have a Spine?
Harvard Business Review
June 29, 2022
For all the ink spilled on the concept of strategy, it continually proves to be a surprisingly slippery idea. In practice, leaders often struggle to define and communicate strategies to their team. In their 2008 article, “Can You Say What Your Strategy Is?” David Collis and Michael Rukstad don’t mince words: “Most executives cannot articulate the objective, scope, and advantage of their business in a simple statement. If they can’t, neither can anyone else.”

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Innovation, Leadership

5 Questions to Build Your Company’s Capacity for Innovation
Harvard Business Review
October 15, 2021
or all the ink spilled on the concept of strategy, it continually proves to be a surprisingly slippery idea. In practice, leaders often struggle to define and communicate strategies to their team. In their 2008 article, “Can You Say What Your Strategy Is?” David Collis and Michael Rukstad don’t mince words: “Most executives cannot articulate the objective, scope, and advantage of their business in a simple statement. If they can’t, neither can anyone else.”

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Innovation, Management

6 Author Newsletters
It’s Not Content, It’s Choice Architecture
Linkedin
February 09, 2026
Eventually for some product categories, things come to an inflection point. That’s when individuals and groups emerge to weigh in on the “this is not OK” side of things, pressing courts and eventually legislators to take action.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Change Management, Management

Could you benefit from Belonging to a Peer-to-Peer Network?
LinkedIn
February 20, 2024
Executive development, or more specifically executive education, truly got going in the United States and Europe after the second world war. Universities such as Harvard introduced the “Advanced Management Program” and other high-level courses designed to teach practical business leadership skills to executives who might have experience in family firms or in the military but not in the increasingly large global firms that represented an ever-larger portion of the economies of much of the developed world.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Management, Education

Why are so few people talking about the massive wealth transfer to women?
LinkedIn
February 13, 2024
What would you think? The 50’s? 60’s? What if I were to tell you that it wasn’t until the 1980s that some fundamental cases were settled that would change women’s rights to their own property forever.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Change Management, Management

Fighting Back against the algorithms – Community and the redemption of Taylorism?
Thought Sparks
January 24, 2024
As algorithms have come to dominate the lives of gig workers, treating many like poorly performing robots, community structures are emerging that allow workers to spontaneously organize – and create a potentially powerful counterforce.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Change Management, Management

An inflection point comes for Pharmaceutical Companies
Thought Sparks
January 16, 2024
The Inflation Reduction Act for the first time allowed Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate with drugmakers for pharmaceutical prices. It also contained a much less discussed provision regarding patent protections. The law sets different exemption times for “small molecule” drugs that can be taken in pill form and “large molecule” ones that have to be injected or infused. This has the potential to change the structure of incentives for the Pharma industry and not necessarily in a way that benefits patients

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Change Management, Management

WFH? RTO? Remembering the Allen Curve and Why It Matters Now
LinkedIn
December 12, 2023
For all the passionate conversations about new working arrangements for the knowledge working classes, we seem to have glossed right over one of the most robust findings in communication theory.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Management

5 Books
Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
September 19, 2019
Paradigmatic shifts in the business landscape, known as inflection points, can either create new, entrepreneurial opportunities (see Amazon and Netflix) or they can lead to devastating consequences (e.g., Blockbuster and Toys “R” Us). Only those leaders who can “see around corners”—that is, spot the disruptive inflection points developing before they hit—are poised to succeed in this market.

Columbia Business School professor and corporate consultant Rita McGrath contends that inflection points, though they may seem sudden, are not random. Every seemingly overnight shift is the final stage of a process that has been subtly building for some time. Armed with the right strategies and tools, smart businesses can see these inflection points coming and use them to gain a competitive advantage. Seeing Around Corners is the first hands-on guide to anticipating, understanding, and capitalizing on the inflection points shaping the marketplace.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Change Management, Management

The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business
Harvard Business Review Press
June 04, 2013
Strategy is stuck. Most leaders are using frameworks that were designed for a different era of business and based on a single dominant idea, that the purpose of strategy is to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Once the premise on which all strategies were built, this idea is increasingly irrelevant.

Now, Columbia Business School professor and globally recognized strategy expert Rita Gunther McGrath argues that it’s time to go beyond the very concept of sustainable competitive advantage. Instead, organizations need to forge a new path to winning: capturing opportunities fast, exploiting them decisively, and moving on even before they are exhausted. She shows how to do this with a new set of practices based on the notion of transient competitive advantage.

This book serves as a new playbook for strategy, one based on updated assumptions about how the world works, and shows how some of the world’s most successful companies use this method to compete and win today.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Change Management, Innovation

Discovery-Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process to Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity
Harvard Business
February 03, 2009
You've been charged with growing your business. Incremental growth can no longer deliver the results you need. You need truly dynamic growth - and you need to achieve it without risking a hugely expensive gamble. How can you encourage innovative new ventures and pursue ambitious growth while minimizing risk?

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Change Management, Management

Marketbusters: 40 Strategic Moves That Drive Exceptional Business Growth
Harvard Business Review Press
April 04, 2005
Robust methods to identify new growth opportunities

YOUR SHAREHOLDERS DEMAND growth; your company needs growth; and your career can suffer or soar because of how you drive growth or don’t. While executives often talk about their great growth plans, very few of these plans actually deliver real gains in growth and profitability. How do some companies manage to beat the odds and bust through the obstacles that make explosive growth so elusive?

In this hands-on guide, Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian C. MacMillan identify powerful strategic moves they call “MarketBusters”—approaches that dramatically reconfigure profit streams in an industry, upend conventional competition, and ultimately deliver blockbuster growth.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Leadership, Management

The Entrepreneurial Mindset: Strategies for Continuously Creating Opportunity in an Age of Uncertainty
Harvard Business Review Press
August 01, 2000
The Entrepreneurial Mindset offers a refreshingly practical blueprint for thinking and acting in environments that are fast-paced, rapidly changing, and highly uncertain. It provides both a guide to energizing the organization to find tomorrow's opportunities and a set of entrepreneurial principles you can use personally to transform the arenas in which you compete. The authors present simple but powerful ways to stop thinking and acting by the old rules and start thinking with the discipline of a habitual entrepreneur.

They show how to: eliminate paralyzing uncertainty by creating an entrepreneurial frame that shapes a shared understanding of what is to be accomplished; create a richly stocked opportunity register to redesign existing products, find new sources of differentiation, resegment existing markets, reconfigure market spaces, and seize the huge upside potential of breakthroughs; build a dynamic portfolio of businesses and options that continuously move your organization toward the future while simultaneously leaving the past behind; execute dynamically your ideas so that you can move fast, with confidence and without undue risk; and develop your own way of leading with an entrepreneurial mindset to create a vibrant entrepreneurial climate within your organization.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Management

1 Founder
Valize
Valize
July 06, 2016
We want to be the company that helps you build a better future for your people, your community, and your investors.

We uniquely combine three elements to architect the pathway to long-term healthy growth for your organization and your people.

See publication

Tags: Innovation, Management

1 Media Interview
Friday Fireside Chat - Rita McGrath & Zeynep Ton Full Session
RMG
June 26, 2023
Rita McGrath is a best-selling author, sought-after speaker, and longtime professor at Columbia Business School. As one of the world’s top experts on innovation and growth, Rita’s work is regularly published in the Harvard Business Review. She is consistently ranked among the Top 10 management thinkers in the world

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Change Management, Management

1 Video
Rising Against the Odds with Rita McGrath and Sylvia Acevedo
Import from youtube.com
February 10, 2026

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Innovation

1 Webinar
Friday Fireside Chat - Rita McGrath & Matt Abrahams, author of Think Faster, Talk Smarter
RMG
January 04, 2024
You haven't missed it! In my first Friday Fireside Chat of 2024, I'll be talking to award-winning podcast host and communications expert Matt Abrahams. He'll share time-tested techniques for rocking that unexpected conversation in which you have a great opportunity to make an impression. Much better than flubbing it and wishing you got the chance for a do-over.

See publication

Tags: Business Strategy, Change Management, Management

Thinkers360 Credentials

4 Badges

Blog

Opportunities

Events

Add to Shortlist View Shortlist »

Contact Rita McGrath

Book Rita McGrath for Speaking

Book a Video Meeting

Media Kit

Share Profile

Contact Info

  Profile

Rita McGrath

Latest Activity

Search
How do I climb the Thinkers360 thought leadership leaderboards?
What enterprise services are offered by Thinkers360?
How can I run a B2B Influencer Marketing campaign on Thinkers360?