Gary Pisano is the Harry E. Figgie Professor of Business Administration and Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Development at the Harvard Business School where he has been on the faculty since 1988. Pisano is an expert in the fields of technology and operations strategy, the management of innovation, and competitive strategy. His research and consulting experience span a range of industries including aerospace, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals, health care, nutrition, computers, software, telecommunications, and semiconductors.
Pisano is the author of over 90 articles and case studies. His "Restoring American Competitiveness" (co-authored with Willy Shih) won the McKinsey Award for best article published in Harvard Business Review in 2009. He is an author of six books including The Development Factory; Operations, Strategy, and Technology; Science Business, and Producing Prosperity. His latest book, Creative Construction: The DNA of Sustained Innovation (January 2019), examines how larger enterprises can nurture capabilities for transformative innovation. He is the co-chair of the Harvard Business School executive program Driving Profitable Growth. His current research, writing, and teaching focus on corporate growth strategies.
Professor Pisano serves as an advisor to senior executives at leading companies throughout the world and has been a director of both public and private companies. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Axcella Health and Celixir. He speaks widely at industry conferences and to senior executive audiences. Professor Pisano holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and B.A. in economics from Yale University.
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.
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.
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.
