Hal Gregersen
Innosight Fellow
Hal Gregersen is a Professor of Leadership at INSEAD where he pursues his vocation of executive teaching, coaching, consulting, and research by exploring how leaders in business, government, and society discover provocative new ideas, develop the human and organizational capability, and deliver results that make powerful, positive impacts. Before joining INSEAD, Gregersen taught at the London Business School, Tuck School–Dartmouth College, Helsinki School of Economics, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy–Tufts University, Brigham Young University, Thunderbird, and Turku School of Economics as a Fulbright Fellow. In 1983 he completed his masters in organizational change from Brigham Young University (with Honors) and in 1989 a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of California, Irvine.
Gregersen's book, The Innovator’s DNA (Harvard Business Review Press), flows from a path-breaking international research project conducted with Jeff Dyer (Wharton/BYU) and Clayton Christensen (Harvard Business School). The book is an extension of their McKinsey Award-winning article “The Innovator’s DNA,” which appeared in Harvard Business Review in 2009. This book explores the fundamental question of where disruptive innovations come from and what roles senior executives, managers, and employees play in the creation of highly innovative teams and organizations. Gregersen and colleagues gleaned answers to this question by interviewing founder entrepreneurs and current CEOs of the world’s 25 most innovative companies, conducting in-depth case studies of those companies, and collecting over 4,500 Innovator’s DNA survey assessments of high-performing entrepreneurs, managers, and inventors. Gregersen is now actively exploring (through interviews and survey assessments) how the same Innovator’s DNA skills can fuel social entrepreneurial success around the world.
Gregersen has co-authored numerous books, including It Starts With One: Changing Individuals Changes Organizations and Global Explorers: The Next Generation of Leaders. He has published over 50 articles, book chapters, and cases on innovation and change in business journals such as Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Human Resource Management. His research has been highlighted globally on CNN and in magazines such as Across the Board, BusinessWeek, CEO, Fast Company, Fortune, Psychology Today, and The Wall Street Journal. Gregersen has received several awards for researching and teaching excellence, the Ascendant Scholar Award from the Western Academy of Management.
Putting his research on leading innovation and change to practice, Gregersen regularly consults with senior teams, conducts executive seminars, and delivers keynote speeches on these issues with leading companies around the world. He also works extensively with governments, not-for-profit and NGO organizations, such as Teach for America and Room 13, to generate greater innovation and change capabilities in the rising generation of leaders, particularly women leaders.
Hal and his wife Suzi live in France and Abu Dhabi. He can be reached at hal.gregersen@insead.edu.
Publication Highlights
The Innovator’s DNA, Harvard Business Review Press, 2011.
“The Innovator’s DNA,” Harvard Business Review, 2009.
