— E x e c u t i v e S e s s i o n —
Better, Faster Innovation
LEADING THE FLEXIBLE ENTERPRISE
August 11-12, 2004 / Hilton Boston Back Bay

Faculty

Stefan Thomke
Associate Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
and renowned author of Experimentation Matters: Unlocking the Potential of New Technologies for Innovation

Stefan Thomke is an Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and a noted authority on the management of technology and product innovation. Professor Thomke’s research and writings have focused on the process, economics, and management of experimentation. A critical part of his research examines the impact of new and rapidly advancing technologies on the economics of innovation, specifically, product development performance and organization. His work has been published in leading journals such as California Management Review, Harvard Business Review, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Research Policy and Scientific American. He has authored more than three dozen articles, cases and notes that have been published. Thomke is the author of Experimentation Matters: unlocking the Potential of New Technologies for Innovation (Harvard Business School Press, 2003). He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering, and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering and Management from MIT.

"Experimentation Matters is one of the most important and useful books about innovation that I have ever read. Thomke masterfully shows how new technologies and processes for rapid learning can improve the effectiveness and speed of product development."

Clayton M. Christensen
Professor, Harvard Business School, and author, The Innovator's Dilemma

"Thomke illuminates how new technologies have profoundly affected business experimentation and shifted managerial notions of what it means to be innovative. Companies that fail to heed his call to design, organize, and effectively manage their innovation processes will pay the cost, both in misspent dollars and creativity."

Dr. Peter B. Corr
Senior Vice President, Science and Technology, Pfizer, Inc.