Rosabeth Moss Kanter is the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, specializing in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. She advises major corporations and governments worldwide, and is the author or co-author of 15 books, including her latest book, Evolve!: Succeeding in the Digital Culture of Tomorrow. Other award-winning bestsellers include Men & Women of the Corporation, The Change Masters, When Giants Learn to Dance, and World Class: Thriving Locally in the Global Economy, and Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the Frontiers of Management. In 2001 she received the Academy of Management's Distinguished Career Award, its highest award for scholarly contributions, for her impact on management thought, and in 2002 was named the World Teleport Association's Intelligent Community Visionary of the Year Award for her writing and advocacy.
Professor Kanter's current research is on the development of new leadership for the digital age — how to guide the transformation of large corporations, small and mid-sized businesses, health care, government, and education as they incorporate new technology, create new kinds of alliances and partnerships, work across boundaries and borders, respond to accountability demands, and take on new social responsibilities. She serves as a senior adviser to IBM's Reinventing Education initiative, currently active in 21 sites in the U.S. and in 8 other countries, and is partnering with IBM to bring her leadership models to K-12 education reform. In 1997-1998 she conceived and led the Business Leadership in the Social Sector (BLSS) project, under the auspices of the Harvard Business School's Initiative on Social Enterprise, which involved over 100 national leaders, including CEOs, Senators, Governors, and the First Lady, in dialogue and a call to action about public-private partnerships for change. From 1989-1992 she also served as Editor of the Harvard Business Review, which was a finalist for a National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 1991. She joined the Harvard Business School faculty in 1986 from Yale University, where she held a tenured professorship from 1977 to 1986.
Professor Kanter has received 21 honorary doctoral degrees from distinguished universities nationwide and over a dozen leadership awards, and has been named to lists of the 50 most influential businss thinkers in the world," (ranked #11), the "18 business gurus to watch," the "100 most important women in America" and the "50 most powerful women in the world." Her public service activities span local and global interests. She has been a judge for the Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership given at the White House, a member of the Board of Overseers for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, a Fellow of the World Economic Forum, served on the Massachusetts Governor's Economic Council (for which she co-chaired the International Trade Task Force), led the effort to establish a Year 2000 Commission for legacy projects for Boston, and currently serves on the U.S. Secretary of Labor's Committee on the Skills Gap of the 21st Century Work Force Council. She has been a corporate and pension fund director and sits on many civic and non-profit boards, including City Year, the national urban youth service corps that was the model for Americorps and national service.
She co-founded Goodmeasure Inc., a consulting group, and serves as a director or adviser for other companies. Her consulting clients include some of the world's most prominent companies, and she has delivered keynote addresses for major events in every U.S. state and dozens of other countries, sharing the platform with Prime Ministers and Presidents. A new venture, in partnership with a global technology company, is developing Web-based versions of her leadership and change tools, to help embed them in the daily work of organizations everywhere.
The Change Masters: Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the American Corporation