Bob Simons is the Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Over the last 30 years, Simons has taught accounting, management control, and strategy execution courses in both the Harvard MBA and Executive Education Programs. During 2018/2019 he is teaching “Mastering Strategy Execution,” a second-year MBA course, and "Driving Corporate Performance," a program for general managers and financial executives.
In January 2017, Simons published a 15-module series on Strategy Execution available through Harvard Business School Publishing. While each module is designed to be used alone, the series forms a complete course that teaches—either through self-study or in the classroom—the latest techniques for using performance measurement and control systems to implement strategy. Modules 1 - 4 set out the foundations for strategy implementation. Modules 5 - 10 teach quantitative tools for performance measurement and control. Modules 11 - 15 illustrate the use of these techniques by managers to achieve profit goals and strategies.
Simons has also developed a new, online app called the Job Design Optimization Tool (JDOT) which is available free-of-charge from Harvard Business School Publishing. This tool can be used to design, or test the design, of any job in any organization.
A Canadian CPA, Simons earned his Ph.D. from McGill University. Simons has served as a consultant to many companies on topics related to strategy execution, organization design, performance measurement, and strategic control. He has testified as an expert witness in U.S. Federal Court and before State Public Utility Commissions.
The 15-module Strategy Execution series forms a complete course that teaches the latest techniques for using performance measurement and control systems to implement strategy. Module notes can be used individually or as a set. Modules 1 - 4 set out the foundations for strategy implementation. Modules 5 - 10 teach quantitative tools for performance measurement and control. Modules 11 - 15 illustrate the use of these techniques by managers to achieve profit goals and strategies. Each module note is accompanied by a list of recommended case studies that further illustrate the reading's key concepts using current, real-life examples. The series is accompanied by the new online Job Design Optimization Tool (JDOT).
This paper examines contemporary economic theories that focus on the design and management of business organizations. In the first part of the paper, a taxonomy is presented that describes the different types of economists interested in this subject—market economists, regulatory economists, and enlightened economists—and illustrates the extent to which each tribe has been captured by the concept of self-interest. After arguing that this fixation has caused—and is likely to continue to cause—significant harm to our economy, the paper then presents an alternative approach based on a theory of business and discusses the implications for research and teaching.
All companies claim that their strategies are customer driven. But when “customer” means any number of entities in a company’s value chain—consumers, suppliers, retailers, even internal units like R&D—managers tend to lose focus, and their firms become vulnerable to competitors who have clearly defined who they serve and how.
In this article, Robert Simons of the Harvard Business School presents a framework that can help companies develop strategies that are truly customer-centric.
To stay ahead of the pack, you must translate your organization's competitive strategy into day-to-day actions that will enable your company to win in the marketplace. This means channeling resources into the right efforts, striking a balance between innovation and control, and getting everyone to pull in the same direction. How do you accomplish all this?
What are the biggest problems companies face in executing their strategies? Robert Simons explains why management teams must ask themselves tough questions, like "What could cause our business to fail?"
As business leaders worry about the decline of American competitiveness, business schools are responding by changing their curriculums. But are the topics and approaches taught in today's business schools part of the solution or part of the problem? In this paper, I explore the possibility that four trends in current MBA curriculums—theory creep, mission creep, doing well by doing good, and the quest for enlightenment—are teaching students to be uncompetitive in today's global markets. If this hypothesis is true, I argue that business school curriculums should be re-centered around the tough choices needed to compete—and to win.
This HBS working paper focuses on the relationship between business strategy, organization structure, and diagnostic control systems. The project analyzes data from 75 field studies to illustrate how managers adjust span of accountability and span of control to motivate different levels of innovation and entrepreneurial behavior. Six propositions are derived inductively about when, why, and how managers make these choices.
How Managers Use Accountability Systems For Greater Performance And Commitment
The design of an organization—the accountability system that defines roles, rights, and responsibilities throughout the firm—has a direct impact on the performance of every employee. Yet, few leaders devote focused attention to how this design is chosen, implemented, and adjusted over time. Robert Simons argues that by viewing design as a powerful and proactive management lever--rather than an inevitable outcome of corporate evolution—leaders can maximize productivity across every level of the organization.
How Managers Use Innovative Control Systems to Drive Strategic Renewal
Based on a ten-year examination of control systems in over 50 U.S. businesses, this book broadens the definition of control and establishes a critical bridge between the disciplines of strategy and accounting and control. In addition to the more traditional diagnostic control systems, Simons identifies three new control systems that allow strategic change: belief systems that communicate core values and provide inspiration and direction, boundary systems that frame the strategic domain and define the limits of freedom, and interactive systems that provide flexibility in adapting to competitive environments and encourage organizational learning. These four control systems, according to Simons, will provide managers with the basic levers for pursuing strategic objectives.
