W. Chan Kim

#1 Management Thinker in the World

W. Chan Kim is a Professor of Strategy and the Co-Director of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute in Fontainebleau, France. Prior to joining INSEAD, he was a professor at the University of Michigan Business School, USA. He has served as an advisor to several countries and multinational corporations in Europe, the U.S., and the Asia Pacific region.

He is the co-author of the USA Today bestseller, Beyond Disruption: Innovate and Achieve Growth without Displacing Industries, Companies, or Jobs (Harvard Business Review Press, May 2023) and the over 4 million copy global bestseller Blue Ocean Strategy, which is recognized as one of the most iconic and impactful strategy books ever written, and The New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Los Angeles Times bestseller Blue Ocean Shift.

In 2023 Kim along his colleague Renée Mauborgne were honored as two of the four leading thinkers in the 100 years of Harvard Business Review’s publication for the global impact of their far-reaching body of research and ideas. In 2019, he along with his colleague Renée Mauborgne was named the most influential management thinker in the world by Thinkers50. To date, blue ocean strategy and blue ocean shift teaching materials have been adopted by nearly 3,000 universities across the globe. In 2022, Harvard Business Review selected Blue Ocean Strategy as one of the most influential and innovative articles published in Harvard Business Review over the last 100 years. 

Kim has published numerous articles in top academic and managerial journals including Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of International Business Studies, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Financial Times, among others. The Journal of International Management recognizes Kim as one of the world’s most influential academic journal authors in global strategy.

Kim is the recipient of numerous academic and management awards including the Nobels Colloquia Prize for Leadership on Business and Economic Thinking, the Carl S. Sloane Award by the Association of Management Consulting Firms, the Leadership Hall of Fame by Fast Company, the Eldridge Haynes Prize for the best original paper by Academy of International Business, among others.