By Tad Walch

Sen. Mitt Romney and others are honoring Christensen, the pioneer of disruptive innovation theory, in tributes after news of his death

SALT LAKE CITY — Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Sen. Mitt Romney and others honored the pioneer of disruptive innovation theory in tributes Friday and Saturday after news broke of the death of Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen.

“Clay was hugely influential on me as CEO,” Hastings said in an email to the Deseret News. “I owe much of our success to his writings.”

Christensen’s co-founder at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, Michael Horn, wrote a tribute for the Harvard Business Review.

“In the hundreds of instances I saw Clay speak, even after his first stroke hindered his speech, he would sweep the audience to its feet with the eloquence of his thoughts and insights,” Horn wrote. “It’s those words and thought patterns, but also his fundamental humanity, compassion, and humility that I will miss so much.”