Aligning the Stars
Aligning the Stars
Aligning the Stars
Author Bios & Photos
Thomas J. Tierney
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Thomas J. Tierney
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Thomas J. Tierney is the former chief executive of Bain & Company, the international consulting firm. He is also the founder and Chairman of The Bridgespan Group, Bain’s non-profit affiliate. He specializes in high growth companies, organizational strategy and the management of professional service firms.
During the 1990's, under Tierney's leadership, Bain & Company grew its revenues six fold, and more than doubled the number of its offices worldwide. He oversaw the firm's aggressive broadening of its technology practices and its ascension to global leadership in consulting to private equity firms. Bain & Company has long been recognized as one of the premier strategy consulting firms in the world; it currently employs 4,300 employees serving clients from more than 39 offices around the world.
Tierney joined Bain & Company in 1980 following graduation from Harvard Business School where he received his MBA with distinction. A native of California, he received his BA in Economics, with highest distinction, from the University of California at Davis. He was promoted to partner after three years at Bain & Company, and in 1987 became Managing Director of the San Francisco office. In 1992, he was elected as Bain’s Worldwide Managing Director.
Tierney transitioned from Bain to focus on The Bridgespan Group and related initiatives in 2000.
Tierney has contributed to numerous case studies and publications, including The Harvard Business Review. His work has been widely covered in The New York Times, Financial Times, USA Today, and Fast Company. He was recently profiled in the book, Learning form the CEO, published by Forbes. He has co-authored a strategy book for professional service firms entitled Aligning the Stars, which was published in April, 2002 by Harvard Business School Press.
Mr. Tierney recently became a director of eBay, Incorporated. He is also active on a number of non-profit boards, including the Hoover Institution, The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Harvard Business School, The Harvard Business School Initiative on Social Enterprise and The National Academies. He is a past director of many other organizations including: The United Way, Stanford Business School, The Committee for Economic Development and WGBH.)
Several hot topics Tom Tierney can discuss:
Professional service focus:
  • Turmoil in the PSF sector: mergers, spin-offs, globalization, competitive dynamics, winners & losers
  • Why in PSFs “the people you pay are more important than the people who pay you”
  • How strategy for PSFs is different (and similar) to traditional corporations
  • Why “stars” matter more than “talent”
  • The power, reach and global influence of PSFs (“hidden giant”)
  • The risks and rationale for publically traded PSFs
  • The power of “partnership” as an organizing theme in PSFs
  • Why “starmaking” is more important than “rainmaking”
Strategic organization focus:
  • PSFs as a model for 21st century “knowledge worker” organizations
  • Why (in many businesses) organization is more important than strategy – and what to do about it
  • Why stars matter
  • How to guide the behavior of stars
  • Controlling culture rather than controlling people
  • Leadership without control – a model for the future
  • Use recessionary times to strengthen your organization (by investing time not money)
  • The power of feedback loops in shaping an organization’s performance
  • Career management: building a life, not just a resume

For more information about the work of Thomas J. Tierney, go to Related Writings.
Jay W. Lorsch
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Jay W. Lorsch
Louis E. Kirstein Professor of Human Relations
Chairman, Doctoral Programs
Director of Research
Harvard University
Graduate School of Business Administration
Education
1964 Doctor of Business Administration: Harvard University
1956 S.M. in Business Administration: Columbia University
1955 A.B. in Business Administration: Antioch College
Special Honors And Awards
Academy of Management Book Award (Organization and Environment), 1967
James A. Hamilton Hospital Administrators' Book Award from American College of Hospital Administration (Organization and Environment), 1969
Business Experience
Director, Brunswick Corporation (1983-present)
Director, Benckiser N.V. (1997-1999)
Director, Directorship (1995-1997)
Director, Sandy Corporation (1987-1995)
Lieutenant, U.S. Army Finance Corps (1956-1959)
Controller's Department, Hallmark Card, Inc. (1959-1960)
Teaching Experience
Professor of Organizational Behavior (1971-present), currently teaching the second-year MBA course "Board of Directors and Corporate Governance" as well as two Executive Education courses, "Leading Professional Service Firms" and "Making Corporate Boards More Effective"
Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior (1968-1970)
Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior (1965-1967)
Research Fellow in Business Administration, HBS (1964-1965)
Visiting Instructor, Antioch College (1961)
Administrative Activities
Faculty Chairman, Global Corporate Governance Initiative (1998-present)
Chairman, Doctoral Programs, Director of Research (1995-1999)
Senior Associate Dean, Chairman of Executive Education Program (1991-1995)
Senior Associate Dean, Director of Research (1986-1991)
Chairman of Advanced Management Program, HBS (July 1980-July 1985)
Chairman of Organizational Behavior Area (1974-1979)
Consulting Activities
Consultant on strategic, organizational and managerial issues to companies such as Ameritech, Applied Materials, Bank of Montreal, Citicorp, Coopers & Lybrand, Corning Glass Works, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Merck Sharp and Dohme, and Petreleos de Venezuela S.A.
Memberships
Advisory Committee, Administrative Services, The President's Reorganizational Committee (1978-1979)
American Sociological Association
Board of Governors, The Academy of Management (January 1971)
Books
Pawns or Potentates: The Reality of America's Corporate Boards, with Elizabeth MacIver, Harvard Business School Press: Boston, MA, 1989.
The Handbook of Organizational Behavior, Jay W. Lorsch, Editor, Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1987.
Decision Making at The Top: The Shaping of Strategic Direction, with Gordon Donaldson, Basic Books: New York, NY, 1983.
Understanding Management, with James P. Baughman, James Reece and Henry Mintzberg, Harper & Row: New York, NY, 1978.
Organizational Behavior and Administration, with P.R. Lawrence and L.B. Barnes, Richard D. Irwin: Homewood, IL, 1976.
Organizations and Their Members: A Contingency Approach, with John Morse, Harper & Row: New York, NY, 1975.
Managing Group and Intergroup Relations, with P.R. Lawrence, Richard D. Irwin: Homewood, IL, 1972.
Organizational Planning: Cases and Concepts, with P.R. Lawrence, Richard D. Irwin: Homewood, IL, 1973.
Managers and Their Careers, with L.B. Barnes, Richard D. Irwin: Homewood, IL, 1973.
Managing Diversity and Interdependence, with Stephen A. Allen, III, Division of Research, Harvard Business School: Boston, MA, 1973.
Organizational Structure and Design, with P.R. Lawrence and G.W. Dalton, Richard D. Irwin: Homewood, IL, 1970.
Studies in Organization Design, edited with P.R. Lawrence, Richard D. Irwin: Homewood, IL, 1970.
Organizational Development: Diagnosis and Action, with P.R. Lawrence, Addison-Wesley: Reading, MA, 1969.
Organization and Environment, Division of Research, Harvard Business School: Boston, MA, 1967.
Product Innovation and Organization, Macmillan Publishing: New York, NY, 1965.
Articles, Papers and Chapters
"CEO Pay: Facts and Fallacies." The Corporate Board, Vol. XX, No. 116, May-June 1999
"Changing Leaders: The Board's Role in CEO Succession." Harvard Business Review, May-June 1999.
"Should Directors Grade Themselves?" Across the Board, May 1997.
"Corporate Governance." In Concise International Encyclopedia of Business and Management, edited by Malcolm Warner, 1997.
"The Board's Role in Monitoring Performance," Governing Entrepreneurial Companies, Summer, 1996.
"The Board As A Change Agent," The Corporate Board, July-August 1996.
"German Corporate Governance and Management: An American's Perspective," ZFBF, edited by Professor Dr. Axel v. Weder, Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt, Dusseldorf, 1996.
"Empowering the Board," Harvard Business Review, January-February 1995.
"Second-Career Directors," Directors & Boards, Vol. 19, No. 3, Spring, 1995.
"Corporate Boards and Corporate Strategy," with James Sailer, In Search of Directors, edited by Marek Hessel, Szego Andras, Budapest, 1995.
"Corporate Boards and Corporate Performance," with James Sailer, In Search of Good Directors, edited by Marek Hessel, Szego Andras, Budapest, 1995.
"Performance Assessment in the Boardroom," Directors & Boards, Vol. 18, No. 3, Spring, 1994.
"Boardroom Brawn," Forecast, Vol. 2, No. 3, May-June 1994.
"The Fight for Good Governance," Harvard Business Review, January-February 1993.
"A Modest Proposal for Improved Corporate Governance," The Business Lawyer, Vol. 48, No.1, November 1992.
"Advice and Dissent: Rating the Corporate Governance Compact," Harvard Business Review, November-December 1991.
"When Professionals Have to Manage," with Peter Mathias, Harvard Business Review, July-August 1987.
"Managing Culture: The Invisible Barrier to Strategic Change," California Management Review, Vol. XXVIII, No, 2, Winter, 1986.
"The Other Side of Excellence," Chief Executive, No. 29, Autumn, 1984.
"Making Behavioral Science More Useful," Harvard Business Review, March-April 1979.
"Organization Design: A Situational Perspective," Organizational Dynamics, Autumn, 1977.
"Contingency Theory and Organizational Design: A Personal Odyssey," The Management Organization Design: Strategies and Implementation, edited by Ralph H. Kilmann, North Holland: New York, NY, 1976.
"Managers, Behavioral Scientists, and the Tower of Babel," Man and Work In Society, edited by Eugene Cass and Frederick Zimmer, Van Nostrand: New York, NY, 1975.
"Beyond Theory Y," with John Morse, Harvard Business Review, May-June 1970.
"Matrix Organization and Technological Innovation," presented at the Symposium on Program Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 1969.
"Accounting and Organization: A Behavioral Science Perspective," The Behavioral Aspects of Accounting Data for Performance Appraisal, edited by T. J. Burns, Ohio State University, College of Administrative Science: Columbus, OH, 1968.
"Organizing for Diversity," Journal of the Academy of Management, 1968.
"Organizational Choice: Product vs. Function," with Arthur Walker, Harvard Business Review, November-December 1968.
"Organizational Integration and Environmental Factors," with P.R. Lawrence, presented by John A. Seiler, Richard D. Irwin: Homewood, IL, 1967.
"Organizational Inputs," with Ralph Hower, Systems Analysis and Organization, edited by John A. Seiler, Richard D. Irwin: Homewood, IL, 1967.
"New Management Job: Integrator," with P.R. Lawrence, Harvard Business Review, November-December 1967.
"Diagnosing Organizational Problems," with P.R. Lawrence, The Planning of Change, edited by Bennis, Benne and Chin, Holt, Rinehart and Winston: Orlando, FL, 1967.
"Differentiation and Integration in Complex Organizations," with P.R. Lawrence, Administrative Science Quarterly, June 1967.
"Organizing for Product Innovation," with P.R. Lawrence, Harvard Business Review, January-February 1965.