Robert S. Kaplan
 
Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development

Robert S. Kaplan is the Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at Harvard Business School. Kaplan joined the HBS faculty in 1984 after spending 16 years on the faculty of the Graduate School of Industrial Administration (GSIA), Carnegie-Mellon University. He served as Dean of GSIA 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. In 1994, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Stuttgart.

Kaplan's research, teaching, and consulting focus on new cost and performance measurement systems, primarily activity-based costing and the The Balanced Scorecard. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 papers and ten books. Kaplan received the Outstanding Accounting Educator Award in 1988 from the American Accounting Association (AAA), and the 1994 CIMA Award from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK) for "Outstanding Contributions to the Accountancy Profession."

Recent books include The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action (Harvard Business School Press, 1996) with David P. Norton, and Cost and Effect: Using Integrated Cost Systems to Drive Profitability and Performance (HBS Press, 1998) with Robin Cooper. Recent Harvard Business Review articles include "The Promise - and Peril of Integrated Cost Systems," (July-August 1998, with Robin Cooper) and "Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System," (January-February 1996 with David P. Norton). He collaborated with David Norton in producing a new CD-ROM interactive simulation, Balancing the Corporate Scorecard available from HBS Publishing. In 1994, HBS Management Productions produced his four-part video-tape series, Measuring Corporate Performance, which presents concepts and companies' experiences with activity-based cost management and the Balanced Scorecard.

Kaplan's other co-authored books include Implementing Activity-Based Cost Management: Moving from Analysis to Action; Measures for Manufacturing Excellence; Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting, plus three management accounting textbooks. Prentice-Hall published the third edition of Advanced Management Accounting in January 1998 and the second edition of Design of Cost Management Systems in December 1998.

Kaplan consults on the design of performance and cost management systems with many leading companies in North America and Europe. He regularly offers seminars in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Israel. Currently, Kaplan serves on the Academic Committee of the Board of Trustees of the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology)and as a director, with David Norton, for The Balanced Scorecard Collaborative.