Top Thinkers50 Honors Go To Amy Edmondson, Sheena Iyengar and Zeynep Ton!

Every two years, the highly regarded Thinkers50 community recognizes the very best in management thinking, spotlighting individuals whose ideas not only respond to current challenges but will also shape our future.

This year, the 2023 Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Awards underscored society’s quest for inclusive growth, mindful decision-making and humane workplaces — themes that resonate deeply with a global audience yearning for positive transformation.

Answering the call are the many Stern clients represented on the Thinkers50 ranking this year – a full 28% of the total list! Each of these thought leaders goes beyond the theoretical to bring practical, thoughtful and human-centric strategies that build resilient, adaptive and ethically grounded organizations. More than personal triumphs, these awards represent a collective affirmation that thoughtful leadership and innovative strategies are indispensable in today’s world.

Congratulations to them all!

The Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, Amy Edmondson is the world’s top expert on psychological safety, teaming and organizational learning. The bestselling author of “The Fearless Organization,” her latest work, “Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well,” reveals the contrasting “failure cultures” in business and provides a fresh perspective on maximizing what we gain from mistakes of all kinds. Amy recently joined our agency’s Minds Worth Meeting podcast to discuss how she equips organizations with transformative practices that turn failure into a launch pad for success.

Breaking in to the top 10 of the Thinkers50 list this year, Columbia Business School Professor Sheena Iyengar is the world’s leading expert on choice and decision-making. As seen in her widely viewed TED talk (4 million views!) and her acclaimed bestseller, “The Art of Choosing,” her step-by-step framework breaks down how and why we make the choices we do and the factors that influence those choices, such as bias and culture. Her groundbreaking Columbia Business School course “Think Bigger” is the basis for her new book, “Think Bigger: How to Innovate” (2023), a map for generating our best ideas that’s grounded in neurological and cognitive science research. She was also a recent guest on Minds Worth Meeting, explaining how we can all innovate better by opening our little black boxes of creativity.

MIT Sloan School of Management Professor Zeynep Ton is a renowned operations strategist who brings a unique blend of academic knowledge and real-world experience to create transformative business strategies. A gifted teacher who focuses on simplifying operational decision-making with customer-centric thinking, Zeynep is the founder of the Good Jobs Institute and an expert in designing and implementing ‘Good Jobs’ models that enhance team productivity and customer satisfaction while rewarding investors and employees. A newcomer to the Thinkers50 list in 2023, she elaborates on her pioneering approach in her latest book, “The Case for Good Jobs.”