Dr. Robert D. Austin

Chair in Management of Creativity and Innovation
Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School

Robert D. Austin holds the Chair in Management of Creativity and Innovation in the Department of Management, Politics, and Philosophy at Copenhagen Business School (CBS). He also serves as Faculty Chair of “Delivering Information Services,” the executive program for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) at Harvard Business School. Professor Austin’s research focuses on innovation, IT management, and performance management, and he’s written on these subjects in more than 100 cases, articles, and books, including The Adventures of an IT Leader (Harvard Business Press, 2009, coauthored with Richard L. Nolan and Shannon O’Donnell, listed on several “Best Books” lists for the year), Corporate Information Strategy and Management (McGraw Hill, 2009, 8th edition, coauthored with Lynda Applegate and Deborah Soule), The Broadband Explosion: Leading Thinkers on the Promise of a Truly Interactive World (Harvard Business Press, co-edited with Stephen P. Bradley), Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know About How Artists Work, (Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2003, coauthored with Lee Devin, and recipient of the Elliot Hayes Award), Creating Business Advantage in the Information Age (McGraw Hill, 2001, coauthored with Applegate and F. Warren McFarlan), and Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations (Dorset House, 1996). He currently serves as Academic Coordinator for the merger of CBS Executive Education with the Scandinavian International Management Institute (SIMI) Executive programs.

Professor Austin’s article in MIT Sloan Management Review, “Bridging the Gap Between Stewards and Creators” (co-authored with Richard L. Nolan) received the 2008 Richard Beckhard Memorial Prize, “given annually to an outstanding paper on the subject of planned change and organizational development.” He served as subject advisor for the Harvard Business Essentials book Managing Projects Large and Small: The Fundamental Skills to Deliver On Budget and On Time (Harvard Business Press, 2003) and is faculty author of the“Project Management Simulation: Scope, Resources, Schedule” (Harvard Business School Publishing, 2009). He’s author, with various coauthors, of many “Most Popular” Harvard Business School cases used by business school’s around the world, and with Jeremy Short, of the first “graphic novel” Harvard Business School case (“The iPremier Company: Denial of Service Attack, Graphic Novel Version”).

Before joining the faculty of Copenhagen Business School, Austin was Associate Professor of Technology and Operations Management at the Harvard Business School, where he taught MBA courses related to Creative Economy, Operations Management, IT, and Accounting, and also extensively in Executive Education, in programs ranging from the Advanced Management Program to specialized programs for Women Leaders. He participated on the team that designed Harvard’s required IT curriculum for the MBA program, and was a member of the Executive Education Faculty Advisory Committee.

He’s also had extensive experience as a practicing manager, primarily at Ford Motor Company but also as chief operations executive for new business incubated by a major tech company. At Ford he worked in a wide range of businesses, including manufacturing operations, credit analysis, customer service, and technical support services. Over the years, Dr. Austin has consulted and delivered education experiences for many multinational corporations, working mostly with C-level executives, and he has served on numerous advisory boards, especially for technology companies. He is a member of the international jury for the CIO 100 Awards, which selects for recognition the best examples of IT projects that “[create] new business value by innovating with technology” and he has advised the European Commission on “e-Competencies for Innovation.”

Professor Austin received a Ph.D. in Management and Decision Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University, where his dissertation won the Herbert A. Simon Award for Behavioral Research in the Administrative Sciences and was a finalist in the Association for Public Policy and Management (APPAM) National Doctoral Dissertation Award. He holds an M.S. in Industrial Engineering/Management Science (Operations Research Concentration) from Northwestern University, a B.A. (with Distinction) in English Literature and a B.S. (with Distinction) in Engineering (Mechanical Concentration) from Swarthmore College. He studied playwriting at the University of Texas at Austin, and has had two plays produced. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi.