Wickham Skinner

C. Wickham Skinner (February 20, 1924 – January 28, 2019) was an American business theorist. He was the Emeritus James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.

Early life[]

Wickham Skinner graduated from Yale University, with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering.^[3][4] After serving with the Engineering Corps for duty on the Manhattan Project, Skinner earned a masters in business administration degree from the Harvard Business School in 1948.^[4]

Career[]

Skinner worked for Honeywell for a decade.^[4]

Skinner became a professor at his alma mater, the Harvard business School.^[3] He served as its Director of International Activities from 1967 to 1970.^[4] In 1974, he was awarded the James E. Robinson chair in Business Administration.^[3] He was Associate Dean from 1974 to 1977.^[4] One of the students he mentored was William J. Abernathy.^[5]

Skinner was a director and the vice president of the .^[4] He was the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Ghent in 2002.^[4] He was a Fellow of Academy of Management.^[4]

Selected writings[]

Books[]

• Impact of New Technology: People and Organizations in Manufacturing and Allied Industries (with Arup K. Chakraborty, Elsevier Science, 1982).
• Manufacturing: The Formidable Competitive Weapon (New York City: John Wiley & Sons, 1985).

Articles[]

• Manufacturing—Missing Link in Corporate Strategy (Harvard Business Review, May 1969).
• The Productivity Paradox (Harvard Business Review, July 1986).

References[]