Dr. Robert A. Burgelman, Edmund W. Littlefield Professor of Management of the Stanford University of Stanford University

Biography:

Professor Burgelman is the Edmund W. Littlefield Professor of Management of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business where he has taught since 1981. He obtained a Licenciate degree in Applied Economics from Antwerp University (Belgium), and an MA in Sociology and a Ph.D. in Management of Organizations from Columbia University, where he studied with doctoral fellowships from the Ford Foundation (US) and ICM (Belgium). His research has focused on the role of strategy-making in firm evolution. In particular, he has studied the strategy-making processes involved in how companies enter into new businesses and exit from existing ones to secure continued adaptation.  In 2003 he received an honorary doctorate from the Copenhagen Business School (Denmark) for his contributions to the study of corporate innovation and entrepreneurship. In 2017 he received an honorary doctorate in economics of the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), as well as the Leadership in Technology Award from the Portland International Center for Engineering and Technology Management (PICMET 2017).  He has been elected a Fellow of the Strategic Management Society and a Fellow of the Academy of Management. Professor Burgelman has been on the faculty of Antwerp University, New York University, Harvard Business School (as a Marvin Bower Fellow), and Cambridge University (as a Visiting Professor of Marketing Strategy and Innovation at the Judge Business School). He has published many articles in leading academic and professional journals, as well as more than 160 case studies of companies and organizations in many different industries. His books include Inside Corporate Innovation: Strategy, Structure, and Managerial Skills (Free Press, 1986), Research of Technological  Innovation, Management and Policy (JIA Press, Elsevier; Volume 4, 1989; Volume 5, 1993; Volume 6, 1997; and Volume 7, 2001), Strategy is Destiny: How Strategy-Making Shapes a Company’s Future (Free Press, 2002), Strategic Dynamics: Concepts and Cases (McGraw-Hill, 2006), Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation (5^th edition, McGraw-Hill-Irwin, 2009), and Becoming Hewlett Packard: Why Strategic Leadership Matters (Oxford University Press, 2017). Professor Burgelman has served as an Associate Editor of the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 2007-2013. He has served as the Executive Director of the Stanford Executive Program (SEP) during 1996-2015, and has taught executive programs and led senior and top management seminars for major companies worldwide. He has also served on boards of directors and boards of advisors of several private companies.