Who is the most influential living management thinker? The Thinkers50 2011 provided the answer at an awards banquet in London on November 14. The  biennial global ranking of the world's 50 most influential living management thinkers named three Tuck School of Business professors to its list this year. Professor Vijay Govindarajan came in at number three, his highest appearance in the ranking to date.  Marshall Goldsmith, who teaches in Tuck Executive Education, made the list at number 7. Professor Richard D'Aveni moved up on the list to number 21.

Govindarajan won the Breakthrough Idea award for his $300 house campaign to re-invent housing for the world’s poorest people. He was also nominated for the Innovation award.  D’Aveni, known for coining the term “Hypercompetition” in the 1990s, was on the short list for the Strategy Award. Goldsmith won the Leadership award and was touted as “America’s favorite executive coach” at the awards banquet.

In response to the awards, Tuck’s dean Paul Danos says, “Tuck students are fortunate to have as teachers three such renowned thought leaders.  Professor Govindarajan is a renowned expert on corporate innovation and has shown his own inventiveness by attacking the housing problem for the world’s poor with his $300 house project.  Professor D’Aveni has studied corporate competition inventing the hyper-competition concept and now he has turned his attention to winning strategies for entire nations. Professor Goldsmith coaches and inspires leaders in a broad swath of the world’s most important organizations.”

Govindarajan is an expert on strategy and innovation and was the first Professor-in-Residence and Chief Innovation Consultant at General Electric. He has been cited by BusinessWeek, The Economist, Forbes, and The London Times as a top thought leader in strategy. Govindarajan is known for his concept of reverse innovation, where innovation takes place in emerging markets and is brought back to developed countries. The concept is rated by Harvard Business Review as one of the ten big ideas of the decade. Govindarajan’s new book, Reverse Innovation, written with Chris Trimble T’96, will be published by HBR Press in April 2012. Govindarajan and Trimble are also co-authors of the books Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators: From Idea to Execution and The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge.

Goldsmith is a world authority in helping successful leaders to achieve positive, measurable change in behavior: for themselves, their people and their teams. He teaches in executive education programs for the Tuck School and is frequently asked to speak at other leading business schools. Goldsmith’s books include The Leader of the Future; Succession: Are You Ready; Coaching for Leadership; What Got You Here Won’t Get You There; and Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It.

D'Aveni’s current research topics include developing strategies to revive America's economic power, strategic capitalism, and price-quality competition. D’Aveni is author of Beating the Commodity Trap and the upcoming book, Strategic Capitalism.

Created and compiled by Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove, Thinkers50 has established itself as the definitive biennial guide of both thinkers and ideas which have shaped strategic management thinking today. For the full list, videos, and awards, visit www.thinkers50.com.

Founded in 1900, Tuck is the first graduate school of management in the country and consistently ranks among the top business schools worldwide. Tuck remains distinctive among the world's great business schools by combining human scale with global reach, rigorous coursework with experiences requiring teamwork, and valued traditions with innovation.