Biographical Sketch of Michael A. Cusumano

Michael A. Cusumano is an associate professor of management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. He specializes in competitive strategy and technology management in the computer software, automobile, and consumer electronics industries, and does much of his work on technology-based Japanese companies and comparisons with U.S. firms.

Professor Cusumano received a B.A. degree from Princeton University in 1976 and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1984, focusing on Japanese management studies. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Production and Operations Management Area at the Harvard Business School during 1984-1986. He is fluent in Japanese language and has lived and worked in Japan for six years. While in Japan, Professor Cusumano held two Fulbright Fellowships (1980-82) and a Japan Foundation Fellowship (1995) for studying at the University of Tokyo, Division of Economics. He has also taught at International Christian University (1976-78) and served as a visiting professor at Hitotsubashi University (1992). In 1994-95, he was a visiting professor and researcher at the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, Department of Computer Science, at the University of Maryland, College Park, and at the University of Tokyo, Division of Economics. In addition, Professor Cusumano has lectured and worked as a consultant, principally in software development management, for such firms as Alcatel, AT&T, Bell Communications Research, Digital Equipment Corporation, Dynalab Taiwan, Fiat, Finsiel/Italtel, Fujitsu, General Electric, GTE, Hitachi, IBM, IBM Japan, Microelectronics and Computer Corporation (MCC), MITRE, Motorola, MultiLink, Northern Telecom, Schlumberger, Tandem Computer, Texas Instruments, Robert Bosch, Siemens, and Toshiba.

Professor Cusumano is the author or co-author of three books. The Japanese Automobile Industry: Technology and Management at Nissan and Toyota (Harvard University Press, 1985) traces the evolution of Japanese innovations in production management and quality control as well as Japan's remarkable success in managing automobile technology transfer and product development. Japan's Software Factories: A Challenge to U.S. Management (Oxford University Press, 1991) examines how Japanese firms, led by Hitachi, Toshiba, NEC, and Fujitsu, have introduced structured factory-like organizations, tools, and methods for managing complex, large-scale software development projects. His most recent book, Microsoft Secrets: How the Words Most Powerful Software Company Creates Technology, Shapes Markets, and Manages People (The Free Press/Simon & Schuster, 1995, with Richard W. Selby), has become a national best-seller in the United States. This examines the principles that lay behind Microsoft's competitive strategy, organization and management systems, and process for software product development. Professor Cusumano has also written approximately fifty articles and papers on software engineering, video-recorder product development and standardization, manufacturing innovation and product development in the automobile industry, as well as Japanese technological innovation and entrepreneurship.

Address:
MIT Sloan School of Management
50 Memorial Drive, Room E52-555
Cambridge, MA 02142 USA.
Tel: 617-253-2574. Fax: 617-253-2660.
Email: cusumano@mit.edu