Gary P. Pisano

Harry E. Figgie, Jr. Professor of Business Administration
Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development

Gary Pisano is the Harry E. Figgie, Jr. Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School where he currently serves as Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development. He joined the Harvard faculty in 1988.

Over the course of his career, Pisano has explored fundamental questions about how organizations innovate, learn, compete, and grow. His research and consulting have spanned a broad range of industries including aerospace, automobiles, apparel, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, entertainment, financial services, semiconductors, software, specialty chemicals, and web services.

Pisano has published over 100 scholarly articles and case studies on such topics as technology and operations strategy, competitive strategy, intellectual property, the management of innovation, organizational learning, commercializing science, business model design and innovation, global competitiveness, and corporate growth. His co-authored article “Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management” (Strategic Management Journal, 1997) is one of the most highly cited papers in the field of management over the past two decades and was instrumental in launching a new capability-based framework for strategy. Pisano has written six books, including his latest, Creative Construction: The DNA of Sustained Innovation. Throughout his career, Pisano’s work has won numerous awards including, Strategic Management Society’s Best Paper (2003) and Strategy + Business best books (2006, 2019). He is a two-time winner of the McKinsey Award (2009, 2019) for the best article published in Harvard Business Review, and the inaugural winner of the Clayton M. Christensen Prize (2020) for his work on innovative cultures. In 2020, he received the Greenhill Distinguished Services Award from the Harvard Business School.

At Harvard, Pisano has taught MBA, executive, and doctoral courses, and has mentored a number of doctoral students. He has created a new MBA course on corporate growth strategies. He is also the co-creator and co-chair of two new executive programs, “Driving Profitable Growth” and “Strategic Agility for Turbulent Times.”

In addition to his academic research and teaching, Pisano serves as an advisor to senior leaders at leading companies around the world and has been a director of both public and private company boards. Professor Pisano currently serves on the board of directors of Axcella Health and Generate Biomedicines.

Professor Pisano received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. in economics from Yale.

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Creative Construction: The DNA of Sustained Innovation

Every company wants to grow, and the most proven way is through innovation. The conventional wisdom is that only disruptive, nimble startups can innovate; once a business gets bigger and more complex corporate arteriosclerosis sets in. Gary Pisano's remarkable research conducted over three decades, and his extraordinary on-the ground experience with big companies and fast-growing ones that have moved beyond the start-up stage, provides new thinking about how the scale of bigger companies can be leveraged for advantage in innovation.

He begins with the simply reality that bigger companies are, well, different. Demanding that they "be like Uber" is no more realistic than commanding your dog to speak French. Bigger companies are complex. They need to sustain revenue streams from existing businesses, and deal with Wall Street's demands. These organizations require a different set of management practices and approaches--a discipline focused on the strategies, systems and culture for taking their companies to the next level. Big can be beautiful, but it requires creative construction by leaders to avoid the creative destruction that is all-too-often the fate of too many.
Producing Prosperity: Why America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance

For years—even decades—in response to intensifying global competition, American companies decided to outsource their manufacturing operations in order to reduce costs. But we are now seeing the alarming long-term effect of those choices: in many cases, once manufacturing capabilities go away, so does much of the ability to innovate and compete. Manufacturing, it turns out, really matters in an innovation-driven economy. In Producing Prosperity, Harvard Business School professors Gary Pisano and Willy Shih show the disastrous consequences of years of poor sourcing decisions and underinvestment in manufacturing capabilities. They reveal how today's undervalued manufacturing operations often hold the seeds of tomorrow's innovative new products, arguing that companies must reinvest in new product and process development in the U.S. industrial sector.
Science Business: The Promise, the Reality, and the Future of Biotech

Why has the biotechnology industry failed to perform up to expectations despite all its promise? In Science Business, Professor Gary Pisano answers this question by providing an incisive critique of the industry. Pisano not only reveals the underlying causes of biotech's problems; he offers the most sophisticated analysis yet on how the industry works. And he provides clear prescriptions for companies, investors, and policymakers seeking ways to improve the industry's performance. The payoff? Valuable improvements in health care and a shinier future for human well-being. Named Best Biotech Book in 2007 by strategy+business.

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