MANAGEMENT GURU

Robert S. Kaplan
By-Feroz Khan

Contact No- (617) 495-6150 Contact No- (617) 495-6150

Overview
Robert S. Kaplan is Baker Foundation Professor at the Harvard Business School. He joined the HBS faculty in 1984 after spending 16 years on the faculty of the business school at Carnegie-Mellon University, where he served as Dean from 1977 to 1983. Kaplan received a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from M.I.T., and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Cornell University. He has received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Stuttgart (1994), Lodz (2006), and Waterloo (2008). Kaplans research, Executive Education teaching, and consulting focus on linking cost and performance management systems to strategy implementation.

 His current research focuses on two topics: measuring and managing organizational risk and, in a joint project with Michael Porter, measuring the cost of delivering health care and linking patient costs to outcomes. He has authored or co-authored 14 books and more than 150 papers including 23 in Harvard Business Review. Recent books include The Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage, the fifth Balanced Scorecard book coauthored with David Norton, and Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing with Steve Anderson.

 His previous books with Norton include Alignment, Strategy Maps, named as one of the top ten business books of 2004 by Strategy & Business and amazon.com, The Strategy-Focused Organization, named by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young as the best international business book for year 2000.

The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action, which has been translated into 24 languages and won the 2001 Wildman Medal from the American Accounting Association for its impact on practice

 Kaplan was co-developer of both activity-based costing and the Balanced Scorecard.

He also co-authored Cost and Effect, Implementing Activity-Based Cost Management, and Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting, which received the American Accounting Association Seminal Contributions to Literature Award in 2007.

Awards : Elected to the Accounting Hall of Fame in 2006.

Kaplan received the Lifetime Contribution Award for Distinguished Contributions to Advancing the Management Accounting Profession from the Institute of Management Accountants in 2008. Lifetime Contribution Award from the Management Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association (AAA) in 2006.

 He received the Outstanding Accounting Educator Award in 1988 from the AAA, the 1994 CIMA Award from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK) for "Outstanding Contributions to the Accountancy Profession," and the 2001 Distinguished Service Award from the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) for contributions to the practice and academic community.

The Financial Times included him in its 2005 list of Top 25 Business Thinkers.

Books: Atkinson, Anthony A., Robert S. Kaplan, Ella Mae Matsumura, and S. Mark Young. Management Accounting: Information for Decision Making and Strategy Execution. 6th ed. Pearson Education, Inc., 2011.

Kaplan, Robert S., and David P. Norton. Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage. Harvard Business School Press, 2008.

Published Papers: Kaplan, Robert S., and Michael E. Porter. "How to Solve the Cost Crisis in Health Care." Harvard Business Review 89, no. 9 (September 2011): 47-64. Kaplan, Robert S. "The Hollow Science." Harvard Business Review 89, no. 5 (May 2011).

Kaplan, Robert S. "Accounting Scholarship That Advances Professional Knowledge and Practice." The Accounting Review86, no. 2 (March 2011).

Current research:
Cost Management Systems Robert S. Kaplan continues to explore the design and use of activitybased cost management systems for manufacturing and service companies. His most recent work has focused on time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC), an approach that enables ABC to become a simpler, more powerful, and more flexible approach. In teaching cases, journal articles, monographs, and textbooks Kaplan has documented the activity-based costing systems being installed by companies worldwide to measure more accurately the profitability of their product lines, customers, channels, and facilities. The research has also led to embedding TDABC in a process that links strategic planning to resource capacity planning and dynamic budgeting.

 Risk Management Systems Along with Assistant Professor Anette Mikes and Associate Professor Dennis Campbell, Kaplan continues to explore how companies can implement risk management processes that reflect their strategies. The research involves case writing, teaching in executive program, and writing articles for general managers and risk professionals.
Performance Management Systems Kaplan's research on performance management systems includes further applications of strategy maps and The Balanced Scorecard for effective strategy execution. His recent research encompasses using strategy maps and scorecards for interorganizational alignment with customers, suppliers, and strategic alliance partners; also, how to integrate enterprise risk management into the BSC strategy execution system.

Primary Interests
Activity-based costing and management Balanced scorecard Cost management Risk management Strategy implementation Industries Health care Nonprofit industry

Additional Topics: Business transformation Customer profitability analysis Customer relationship management Management accounting and control systems Nonprofit governance Performance management Performance measurement Process improvement Social enterprise Strategic change