Robert S. Kaplan

Senior Fellow
Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Emeritus

Robert S. Kaplan, Senior Fellow and Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School, is co-developer of both activity-based costing (ABC) and the Balanced Scorecard (BSC). Kaplan joined the HBS faculty in 1984 after spending 16 years on the faculty of the business school at Carnegie-Mellon University, where he served as Dean from 1977 to 1983.

Kaplan's research, executive program teaching, and consulting focus on aligning cost and performance management systems to strategy execution. He currently works with Michael Porter on the HBS Value Based Health Care initiative to introduce time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) and value-based bundled payments to health care. The goal is to motivate the health care sector to restructure around delivering superior patient outcomes at significantly lower total cost. Another current project applies his strategy execution framework to help corporations create new regional ecosystems for inclusive growth. The strategies are designed to generate strong financial returns while transforming the socio-economic conditions of residents in low-income communities around the world. With Anette Mikes, he continues research and writing on new frameworks for implementing enterprise risk management.

Kaplan has authored or co-authored 14 books and more than 175 papers including 26 in Harvard Business Review. He has co-authored five books with David P. Norton: The Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage, Alignment, Strategy Maps (named as one of the top ten business books of 2004 by Strategy & Business and amazon.com), The Strategy-Focused Organization (named by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young as the best international business book for year 2000), and The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action, which has been translated into 24 languages and won the 2001 Wildman Medal from the American Accounting Association (AAA) for its impact on practice. He also co-authored Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing with Steve Anderson, Cost and Effect and Implementing Activity-Based Cost Management with Robin Cooper, and Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting, with H. Thomas Johnson, which received the AAA Seminal Contributions to Literature Award in 2007.

Kaplan received a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from M.I.T., a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Cornell University, and honorary doctorates from several international universities. Elected to the Accounting Hall of Fame in 2006, he received the Outstanding Accounting Educator Award in 1988 from the AAA, the 1994 CIMA Award from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK), and Lifetime Contribution Awards from the Management Accounting Section of the AAA (2006) and the Institute of Management Accountants (2008). He continues to be a leading global speaker on strategy execution, and cost and performance management.

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Professor Kaplan and Professor Porter on Applying Time-Driven ABC to Health Care

Introducing Accurate Costing to Health Care

Webinar on "How Not to Cut Health Care Costs"

Action Research to Put Health Care Ideas Into Practice

Balanced Scorecard/Activity-Based Costing Videos

Leadership and the Balanced Scorecard

Using the Balanced Scorecard in Nonprofit Organizations

Applying Activity-Based Costing to the Public Sector

Communicating Strategy with the Balanced Scorecard

Reflections on Action Research

Introduction

Activity Based Costing & the Balanced Scorecard

Cases & Research

Big Ideas

Learning Through Implementation

Teaching Validates Research

Cases & Teaching Notes

Normal Science & Inductive Research

The Knowledge Enterprise

Advice for New Faculty

The Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage

By Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, Harvard Business School Press, 2008

From HBSP: " In a world of stiffening competition, business strategy is more crucial than ever. Yet most organizations struggle in this area--not with formulating strategy but with executing it, or putting their strategy into action. Owing to execution failures, companies realize just a fraction of the financial performance promised in their strategic plans. It doesn't have to be that way, maintain Robert Kaplan and David Norton in The Execution Premium. Building on their breakthrough works on strategy-focused organizations, the authors describe a multistage system that enables you to gain measurable benefits from your carefully formulated business strategy. This book shows you how to: Develop an effective strategy--with tools such as SWOT analysis, vision formulation, and strategic change agendas; Plan execution of the strategy--through portfolios of strategic initiatives linked to strategy maps and Balanced Scorecards; Put your strategy into action--by integrating operational tools such as process dashboards, rolling forecasts, and activity-based costing; Test and update your strategy--using carefully designed management meetings to review operational and strategic data. Drawing on extensive research and detailed case studies from a broad array of industries, The Execution Premium presents a systematic and proven framework for achieving the financial results promised by your strategy."

Mastering the Management System

By Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, Harvard Business School Press, 2008

From HBSP: " Companies have always found it hard to balance pressing operational concerns with long-term strategic priorities. The tension is critical: World-class processes won't lead to success without the right strategic direction, and the best strategy in the world will get nowhere without strong operations to execute it. In this article, Kaplan, of Harvard Business School, and Norton, founder and director of the Palladium Group, explain how to effectively manage both strategy and operations by linking them tightly in a closed-loop management system. The system comprises five stages, beginning with strategy development, which springs from a company's mission, vision, and value statements, and from an analysis of its strengths, weaknesses, and competitive environment. In the next stage, managers translate the strategy into objectives and initiatives with strategy maps, which organize objectives by themes, and balanced scorecards, which link objectives to performance metrics. Stage three involves creating an operational plan to accomplish the objectives and initiatives; it includes targeting process improvements and preparing sales, resource, and capacity plans and dynamic budgets. Managers then put plans into action, monitoring their effectiveness in stage four. They review operational, environmental, and competitive data; assess progress; and identify barriers to execution. In the final stage, they test the strategy, analyzing cost, profitability, and correlations between strategy and performance. If their underlying assumptions appear faulty, they update the strategy, beginning another loop. The authors present not only a comprehensive blueprint for successful strategy execution but also a managerial tool kit, illustrated with examples from HSBC Rail, Cigna Property and Casualty, and Store 24. The kit incorporates leading management experts' frameworks, outlining where they fit into the management cycle."

Featured Work: Healthcare Videos

Robert S. Kaplan

Senior FellowMarvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Emeritus

Senior FellowMarvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Emeritus

Senior Fellow
Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Emeritus

Senior Fellow
Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Emeritus