Professor David B. Yoffie is the Max and Doris Starr Professor of International Business Administration at Harvard Business School. A member of the HBS faculty since 1981, Professor Yoffie received his Bachelor's degree summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University and his Master's and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University. Over the last two decades, Professor Yoffie has chaired the HBS Strategy department (1997-2002), the Advanced Management Program (1999-2002), Harvard's Young Presidents' Organization program (2005-2012), and currently chairs Harvard’s YPO Gold program (2013-present). From 2006-2012, he served as Senior Associate Dean and Chair of the HBS executive education programs. During his tenure, executive education revenues grew almost 75%, classrooms were opened in Shanghai and Mumbai, a new executive education building complex was launched, and HBS became the highest rated and largest business school in executive education in the world. Professor Yoffie currently teaches a popular elective MBA course, Strategy & Technology.
Professor Yoffie's research and consulting have focused on competitive strategy, technology, and international competition. Outside of HBS, Professor Yoffie's activities include being on the Board of Directors of HTC Corporation and the board and executive committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Professor Yoffie was on the Board of Directors of Intel for 29 years, where he served as Lead Director, and chaired numerous committees, including Nominating & Governance, Compensation, and Finance. When appointed to Intel's board in 1989, he was the youngest outside director of America's largest 150 industrial corporations. Over the two last decades, Professor Yoffie has served on the boards of many public and private companies, including Charles Schwab, TiVo, Financial Engines, Spotfire, Mindtree Ltd, and E Ink. Professor Yoffie has also lectured and consulted in more than 30 countries around the world. In addition, he has served as a member of the U.S. Department of Justice's commission on international anti-trust.
Professor Yoffie's writings on business strategy and technology have been widely published. Professor Yoffie is the author or co-author of ten books, including The Business of Platforms: Strategy in the Age of Digital Competition, Innovation and Power (Harper Business, 2019), and Strategy Rules: Five Timeless Lessons from Bill Gates, Andy Grove and Steve Jobs (Harper Business, 2015). Strategy Rules is being translated into 18 languages. His other books include Judo Strategy (Harvard Business School Press, 2001), and Competing on Internet Time (Free Press, 1998). BusinessWeek and Amazon.com named Competing on Internet Time as one of the top ten business books of 1998. Professor Yoffie has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Harvard Business Review, as well as more than 50 scholarly and managerial articles on international trade, firm strategy, and global competition. Professor Yoffie has published more than 200 case studies and teaching notes on technology, business strategy and international management issues, which have sold more than 4 million copies.
Strategy Rules: Five Timeless Lessons from Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs
How does an entrepreneur, aspiring manager, or CEO become a master of strategy? In this book, we argue that everyone can learn from three of the greatest strategist of modern time, Bill Gates, Andy Grove and Steve Jobs, who also built three of the most valuable companies in the world. As individual personalities, they could not have been more different. Yet despite their differences, they shared a common strategic framework, which we distill into five rules and 20 principles that any ambitious leader can learn:
1) Look Forward, Reason Back
2) Make Big Bets, Without Betting the Company
3) Build Platforms AND Ecosystems – Not Just Products
4) Exploit Leverage AND Power – Play Judo AND Sumo
5) Shape the Organization around Your Personal Anchor
These rules define what makes a master strategist and how to drive great execution in any organization. Like an expert chess player or game theorist, they learned how to “look forward” into the future, and then “reason back,” tying their visions to immediate, actionable moves. All three made game-changing bets, but without overly risking the viability of their companies. They also created industry-wide platforms, relying heavily on outside companies, rather than standalone products. In addition, each relied on both leverage and power at the tactical level, and built organizations based around their unique personal strengths, which we call their “personal anchors.” We end the book with an exploration of management succession, and the challenges of replacing superstar CEOs. We also show how Gates, Grove, and Jobs established many of the strategic principles that are now followed by the current generation of technology “rock stars,” such as Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, and Pony Ma of Tencent in China.
Getting to the core of Apple: In 1991 the computer industry had just experienced its worst year in history. Although Apple had continued to outperform its competitors, the intense competition was putting acute pressure on its margins. This case examines Apple's need to retain its profitability as the structure of the industry deteriorated. Apple's CEO asked his staff key questions: Could Apple change the structure of the industry, and if so how? And what were the alternatives?
Why do some companies succeed in defeating stronger rivals, while others fail? This is a question that, sooner or later, all ambitious competitors must face. Whether you’re a tiny start-up taking on industry giants or a giant moving into markets dominated by powerful incumbents, the basic problem remains the same: How do you compete with opponents who have size, strength, and history on their side?
The answer lies in a simple but powerful lesson: rather than oppose strength to strength, successful challengers use their opponents’ size and power to bring them down. This message is at the heart of Judo Strategy. Based on extensive research by Harvard Business School professor David Yoffie and research associate Mary Kwak, Judo Strategy introduces a ground-breaking approach to competition that shows companies how to win against imposing odds.
Using vivid examples from companies ranging from Wal-mart and Charles Schwab to Juniper Networks and CNET, the authors demonstrate how managers can translate the core principles of judo-a martial art that prizes skill not size-into a winning business strategy. By mastering movement, managers learn to seize the lead and make the most of their initial advantage. By maintaining balance, they can successfully engage with opponents and respond to rivals’ attacks. And finally, by exploiting leverage, managers can transform their competitors’ strengths into strategic liabilities.
The Digital Initiative is a cross-unit venture that unites scholars and practitioners to explore and impact the transformation of business in today’s digital, networked, and media-rich environment.
