Reflections on Being Inducted Into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame

This month, a new list for the world’s leading thinkers was unveiled at what Fortune once hailed as the “Oscars of management thinking,” Thinkers50. 

Every two years, Thinkers50 identifies, ranks, and shares who they believe to be the top minds in business management – authors, professors, business leaders and researchers who help influence the world of management with their ideas. 

It’s the first event of its kind and, in my opinion, does critical work bringing global networks of thought leaders together, and offering a platform for new, bold thinking.

I’ve had the distinct honour of being named in the Thinkers50 list a number of times, most recently in the 2017 ranking, when I was named the world’s second-most influential thinker. That year, Alex Tapscott and I also won the Digital Thinker Award for our work on Blockchain Revolution. 

But you won’t find me in the list this year, because I’ve been inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame, alongside a number of tremendous peers and colleagues like Clayton Christenson and Michael Porter. 

When Thinkers50 advised me of this I had mixed reactions. Sure it did seem like a cool honor, but I also wondered if I was being put out to pasture in their mind?    

From my point of view, I may not be Miss Jean Brodie (played by Maggie Smith) but I’m kinda still in my prime.  I’m sitting on another best-selling book – Blockchain Revolution – which is still a bestseller and just had its 20th translation.  We’re doing more at the Blockchain Research Institute then in any of my previous ventures. We launched two new businesses in the last year.  That work continues to take me around the world to meet with business and government leaders and help them navigate this next era of the digital economy. 

But my induction has given me time for a moment of reflection.  Over 30 years ago, I began writing about a little-known technology called the internet. Circumstance led me to work with digital technology and computers early on, and I was able to see what profound promise this new technology held.

I became part of a group of early pioneers championing this new technology, and the principles of openness and collaboration that came with it.  

In the 1980’s I wrote a couple of books about it, most of which nobody read. But, over time, I wrote a few that people did: Paradigm Shifts, the Digital Economy, Wikinomics, and more. 

Collaboration was the key to success.  We imagined a new model for learning, where the linear and one-sided model of the lecture hall would be turned on its head; We imagined new models for business, where openness was at the heart of success; And we imagined a platform for sharing information that would create prosperity, liberty, and cooperation. 

Some things also came to fruition that we would be better off without: a fractured social discourse, concentration of data into the hands of a small few, and the loss of our privacy – the foundation of freedom.  So more than ever there is much to be done. As I have written on this page before I think we nothing less than a New Social Contract for the Digital Age and I invite you to join with me in discussing what that looks like. 

While I was writing, lecturing, and speaking about the promise of digital technology, I also had the privilege of seeing both its promise and peril come to fruition. Now, with digital technology woven into every aspect of our lives, we’re confronted with new challenges and new opportunities. 

Thought leadership has changed in those years. Ideas spread differently. I’ve personally enjoyed these new platforms for sharing ideas: I’m still so humbled to hear from people who tell me that my newest TED talk was their first introduction to blockchain.  Just this year Alex Tapscott and I released a series of online courses, in partnership with INSEAD and Coursera, based on some of the thought leadership we’ve compiled. The response has been humbling, and it’s profoundly satisfying to know that our work is helping people of all ages and backgrounds, around the world, grapple with this profound new technology. 

So, I’ll take the Hall of Fame honor, even it takes me off the active list of global thinkers.  With such a robust marketplace of new, bold ideas, organizations like Thinkers50 provide a more important service than ever. Let’s see what younger up-and-comers make the list over the next years.  I’m happy to step aside for them. And  I look forward to continuing to collaborate with them and the organization in the future. 

Congratulations to all of them in the Thinkers50 list this year, and here’s to more great ideas and innovative thinking!