Culture or Strategy:  What Matters Most for Corporate?

Lessons from Hewlett Packard’s Rise, Fall & Possible Future

Speaker Series: Prof Robert Burgelmen

Edmund W. Littlefield Professor of Management, Stanford University Graduate School of Business

Lunch, Sat Apr 20, 2013, 12:15 – 14:00, Club Lusitano 

More than 35 Stanford GSB Chapter of Hong Kong members and friends enjoyed a Saturday lunch discussion with Professor Robert Burgelman of the Stanford GSB, one of the business world’s leading experts on innovation and strategy for a “sneak peak” at some of his latest ground-breaking work.

During the lunch, Professor Burgelman discussed some of the lessons, both good and bad, from the rise, fall and (rise?) of Silicon Valley stalwart HP/Hewlett Packard. As many alumni will recall, the Professor’s co-taught course with Intel Chairman Andy Grove, “Strategy & Action in the Information Processing Industry” has long been a perennial GSB favorite. It was with particular delight that the Stanford GSB Chapter of Hong Kong welcomed the Professor to Hong Kong.

Biography:  Robert A. Burgelman
Edmund W. Littlefield Professor of Management, Executive Director of the Stanford Executive Program (SEP) of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and the 2012-2013 BP Faculty Fellow in Global Management.

Professor Burgelman has taught at the Stanford GSB since 1981. His research has focused on the role of strategy-making in firm evolution, and he teaches courses in Strategic Management and Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation. Since 1992, he has been co-teaching the course “Strategy and Action in the Information Processing Industry”, with Intel Chairman Andy Grove. Before joining Stanford, he was on the Faculties of Antwerp University-UFSIA (1970-73) and New York University (1978-81).

Professor Burgelman is coauthor of Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation (5th edition, McGraw-Hill-Irwin, 2009), the leading textbook in the field. Past books include Strategy is Destiny: How Strategy Making Shapes a Company’s Future (Free Press, 2002), based on 12 years of research concerning the role of strategy making in Intel Corporation’s evolution and his work as the coauthor of Inside Corporate Innovation (Free Press, 1986, 1988), which describes the complete management process involved in internal corporate venturing. He is also the coauthor of Strategic Dynamics: Concepts and Cases (McGraw-Hill, 2006), based on his famous MBA elective course with Intel’s Andy Grove.

Professor Burgelman has taught executive programs and led senior and top management seminars for major companies worldwide. He has served as advisor to company leaders and has previously served on the Board of Directors and Board of Advisors of several private and public companies. He currently serves as Associate Editor of the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal and on the editorial board of California Management Review.

Professor Burgelman obtained a Licentiate degree in Applied Economics from Antwerp University and an MA in Sociology and a PhD in Management of Organizations from Columbia University. He was the recipient of CIM (Belgium) and Ford Foundation (USA) doctoral fellowships. Professor Burgelman was a Marvin Bower Fellow at Harvard Business School from 1991-92. He was a BP America Faculty Fellow (1988-89) and a GSB Trust Faculty Fellow (1996-97) at Stanford’s Graduate School Business School. During 1991-92, professor Burgelman served as Chair of the Division of Business Policy and Strategy of the Academy of Management. In March 2003, the Copenhagen Business School awarded him an honorary doctorate for his contributions to research on corporate innovation.  In 2008 he was elected as a Fellow of the Strategic Management Society, and in 2012 as a Fellow of the Academy of Management.