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Top 20 Business Thinkers on Twitter

By 6 Mins Read
Charlene Li – Business Thinkers on Twitter

Twitter is a cornucopia of information and ideas.

Most people think of social media as platforms for broadcasting. But that is very far from the truth: More than anything it’s about listening and learning.

This is especially the case on Twitter. Here you can find and follow a myriad of people who share interesting knowledge and ideas, incl. business thinkers in all shapes and forms.

But who to follow? Below we’ve listed what we think are the top 20 business thinkers on Twitter.

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Clayton Christensen, Professor at Harvard Business School

With his theories of disruptive innovation, Christensen changed the way that companies do business.  He is still in the process of trying to change the business world, and his posts on Twitter are all a part of that process.

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Pankaj Ghemawat, Professor at NYU Stern & IESE Business School

Pankaj Ghemawat is an Indian-American economist, professor, and author known for his work in the study of globalization. Ghemawat gives brilliant global economic insights and does an excellent job of making you care about them.

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Richard Branson, Founder and Chairman of Virgin Group

Branson uses his voice to try to solve some of the world’s problems. He also gives other entrepreneurs some good business advice. A must-follow for anyone into business on Twitter.

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Sasja Beslik, Sustainable Business at Nordea

Sasja Beslik is Head of Sustainable Finance at Nordea, the largest bank in the Nordics. He has only been on Twitter a few years, but has already made a huge impact with bold comments and savvy videos. He tweets in the intersection between business, sustainability and not least climate.

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David Edelman, CMO at Aetna 

David Edelman, former digital lead at McKinsey and now CMO at Aetna, is a key voice within digital, marketing and now healthcare. He shares valuable insights, articles and observations. Edelman is also a LinkedIn Pulse Influencer with more than 1M followers there.

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Jeremiah Owyang, Founder of Crowd Companies and Kaleido Insights

Jeremiah Owyang is highly engaged on Twitter. He tweets about the sharing economy, technology, AI, business disruption and everything in between. He’s a key figure in Silicon Valley and a must-follow on Twitter.

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Alex Bogusky, Co-founder of Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Bogusky is a big voice in the advertising industry. He has tons of ideas to share, especially related to environmentalism and innovation. One to watch in the years to come.

https://twitter.com/bogusky/status/865643293635366914

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Chris Brogan, NYT Bestselling author & business advisor

Marketing consultant and speaker, he does a lot of tweeting. Amid all of the personal chatter and things that he shares, there is a ton of information about marketing in the digital age.

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Bill Gross, Founder of Technology Incubator Idealab

Bill Gross has founded 100 companies in the last 30 years. So he should know a thing or two about business… And he does. And he shares his knowledge with us on Twitter!

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Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot

Brian Halligan’s tips on marketing have made him an all-star in the field. Halligan is the man behind the term “inbound marketing”, which is also the title of one of his books. He is also a senior lecturer at MIT.

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Sheena Iyengar, Professor at Columbia Business School

Iyengar is a big proponent of helping people understand why we make the choices that we make.

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Whitney Johnson, Co-founder and president of Rose Park Advisors

Whitney Johnson is an expert on disruptive innovation and personal disruption. Her Twitter feed is full of bold statements about things like life, investing in general, and of course, women in the workplace. Lots of things to get you thinking about… things.

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Charlene Li, Founder of Altimeter Group

Li shares her strategies about leadership in a world that is dominated by social media and social interactions. Tweets include everything from personal anecdotes to praise for businesses with customer-centric practices.

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Stefan Lindegaard, Open innovation expert

Lindegaard is an expert on everything surrounding open innovation, which is a concept that is globally trending among executives and thought leaders. He tweets frequently.

https://twitter.com/lindegaard/status/891218981914165248

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Nilofer Merchant, Advisor, speaker & author

Merchant refers to herself as the “female James Bond for Innovation.” Her tweets are bold, urging people to action. She has inside knowledge of what is going on behind closed doors in some of the country’s biggest corporations.

https://twitter.com/nilofer/status/930050525449637888

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Elon Musk, Founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX

Elon Musk, also represented on this list, provides an inside look into all the crazy innovative things happening at Tesla, SpaceX and elsewhere. He also shares his thoughts about why artificial intelligence is a danger as well as jokes about his latest venture, The Boring Company.

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Tom Peters, Author of “In Search of Excellence”

Tom Peters has been referred to as “The Red Bull of management thinkers” and “lover of capitalism.”  He has written quite a few books on business. Peters tweets about business empowerment, as well as problem-solving.

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Daniel Pink, Author of “Changing the Way We Work”

Pink is considered one of the most influential business thinkers in the world. His mission is to change the way we think about our jobs, our careers, and the work that we are doing.

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Michael E. Porter, Professor at Harvard Business School

Porter does not tweet every day, but when he does, you definitely want to listen to what he has to say. One of the most important management figures in the last 50 years, he brings a lot of years of experience and a vast amount of knowledge to the table.

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Peter Shankman, Entrepreneur and author

Peter Shankman provides thoughts on customer service in a world where social technology has literally turned everything we know about customer service upside down.  He has a great voice and provides a great deal of business insight. Definitely one to watch.

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This list of people is not by any means exhaustive. It just skims the surface of the business thinkers out there who share their thoughts and ideas on Twitter. But it is definitely a good place to start.

Anyone you think is missing and should be on the list? Let us know so we can review and possible add them.