Joel Kurtzman

MBA in a Book

Joel Kurtzman is chairman of the Kurtzman Group, a research and consulting firm, which focuses on issues relating to knowledge management, strategy, economic development, global risk, governance and thought leadership. He is the author of 19 books on business, finance and economics and hundreds of articles. He has worked with companies in areas as diverse as high tech and professional and financial services.

As a consultant, Kurtzman clients have included Microsoft, Mercer Management, Littler Mendelson, Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Aramark, Clayton Dubilier & Rice, MLF Investments, AEA Investments, Heidrick & Struggles, Dow Jones, Knowledge Universe (its companies and interests), and the governments of Italy and Spain.

In 2005, Kurtzman and two partners purchased Townhall.com, a content-rich website, which they reorganized and sold to Salem Communications in 2006. Kurtzman served on Townhall’s board of directors.

Between 1999-2003 Kurtzman was on the Board of Curative Health Services (NASDAQ: Cure). With $100 million in cash and $155 million of revenue, Kurtzman devised an acquisition strategy for the company that significantly lifted share price.

He is a Senior Fellow at the Milken Institute, where he helps program the Institute’s Global Conference. He is publisher of the Milken Institute Review and is responsible for all programs relating to Global Risk and also Alternative Energy. He co-leads the Institute’s Financial Innovation Laboratories which use capital market solutions to solve difficult problems such as accelerating drug discovery. Kurtzman periodically briefs members of the US Congress on issues pertaining to alternative energy.

Kurtzman is an advisor to the SEI Advanced Management Research Program at the Wharton School and a member of the editorial board of MIT’s Sloan Management Review. With Harvey Pitt, he was co-chairman of the Corporate Governance Summit.

From 1999 to 2005, Kurtzman was Global Lead Partner for Thought Leadership and Innovation at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the world’s largest professional services firm. He was responsible for PwC’s publishing and research activities worldwide. In that role, he oversaw teams that developed new financial metrics for the firm and its clients and developed new approaches to the financial audit and corporate reporting. Kurtzman oversaw PwC’s relationships with academic institutions and with the publishing community. He was responsible for PwC’s response to the crises at Enron and WorldCom. In addition, Kurtzman was responsible for developing PwC’s US strategy. While at PwC, he developed the Knowledge Concierge program for the World Economic Forum at Davos and was responsible for PwC’s content-relationship with the WEF.

Between 1995 and 1999, Joel Kurtzman was a partner in Knowledge Universe, a private equity investment firm which focused primarily on education and human capital related businesses. During that time, he was involved in dozens of acquisitions and in several successful startups. Operationally, he was CEO of Knowledge Universe Publishing. As a publisher, Kurtzman created Strategy & Business, and The Art of Taking Charge, business magazines, and published many business books.

Concurrent with the above, Kurtzman was an alliance partner with Booz, Allen & Hamilton, a member of its Core Knowledge Team (which developed its Knowledge Online system), and leader of the team that commercialized the firm’s Thought Leadership.

Also between 1995 and 2005, Kurtzman developed and moderated Microsoft’s CEO Summit, which took place on the Microsoft campus and at the Gates’ residence. With Warren Buffet, he co-led the Summit’s corporate governance sessions. The Summit brings together 120 CEO of the world’s largest companies. Over the years, Kurtzman developed many content-rich summits at Microsoft for senior leaders in business, government, and finance, around the world.

Between 1993 - 1995, Kurtzman was the Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Business Review and was a member of the editorial board of Harvard Business School Publishing. During his tenure as Editor, HBR circulation reached 220,000. It also developed its global publishing relationships enabling it to publish country- and region-specific editions.

Between 1987 - 1993, Kurtzman was business editor and columnist at The New York Times specializing in economics and business. He was deeply involved in the business coverage of the break up of the Soviet Union. He wrote the popular “Business Diary” column in the Sunday business section and conducted many CEO interviews.

Between 1978 - 1987, Kurtzman was an international economist at the United Nations and responsible for 19 teams of researchers in 23 countries engaged in large- scale, global economic forecasting and policy-making programs. His economic modeling teams were the first to warn of the impending Latin America debt crisis. He was also Deputy Secretary to the Committee on Development Planning, the group that assessed the economic development level of countries as a qualifier for development assistance. Kurtzman co-led the UN’s research into the “new international economic order,” which focused on the world’s economic transition to a more market-based structure.

While at the UN, Kurtzman was involved as a negotiator between India and the Union Carbide Corporation over the Bhopal disaster. In 2000, he was awarded India’s Indira Gandhi Prize for these efforts.

Kurtzman has lectured around the world, hosted television and radio programs on business and economics and served as chairman and speaker at numerous conferences. He has spoken and moderated panels on corporate governance and other issues at Davos and at many European forums. Kurtzman was the on-air business book reviewer on CNN.

Books by Joel Kurtzman
  1. Memo to the CEO: The New Corporate Finance (working title), Harvard Business School Publishing, (in progress), Harvard Business School Press, Watertown, Ma.
  2. Global Edge: Managing the Hidden Risks of Cross-Border Business, Release date November 2007, Harvard Business School Press, Watertown, MA
  3. Startups That Work, Portfolio/Putnam Business, September 2005, New York
  4. MBA in a Box, May 2004, Random House, New York
  5. How the Markets Really Work, May 2002, Random House, New York
  6. Radical “E” -- From Big Biz To E-Biz, May 2001, John Wiley & Sons, New York
  7. Thought Leaders: Interviews with Today's Leading Business Thinkers. Jossey-Bass/Simon & Schuster, San Francisco, December 1997. Also in French, German and Japanese.
  8. The Death of Money: How the Electric Economy Has Destabilized the World's Markets and Created Economic Chaos. Simon & Schuster, New York, April 1993; paperback by Little Brown, New York, 1994; published in Japan by Kodansha, 1994. Also in Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese.
  9. The Decline and Crash of the American Economy, 1988, W.W. Norton and Company, New York.
  10. Futurecasting, a textbook on forecasting, 1983, E.T.C. Publications, Palm Springs, CA
  11. RCDC: Regional Cooperation Among Developing Countries (co-authored with Ervin Laszlo and A.K. Bhattacharya) 1983, Pergamon Press, Elmsford , NY
  12. The Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and the New International Economic Order (edited with Ervin Laszlo), 1980, Pergamon Press, Elmsford , New York; also in French.
  13. The Structure of the World Economy, (Edited with Ervin Laszlo), 1980, Pergamon Press, Elmsford, NY; also in French, Spanish and Italian.
  14. Food for the World (co-authored with Toivo Miljan and Ervin Laszlo), 1980, Pergamon Press, Elmsford, NY.
  15. World Leadership and the New International Economic Order (co-authored with John O'Manique and Ervin Laszlo), 1980, Pergamon Press, Elmsford , NY.
  16. Europe and the New International Economic Order (Edited with Ervin Laszlo), 1979 Pergamon Press, Elmsford, NY: also in French.
  17. The United States, Canada and the New International Economic Order (co-authored with Ervin Laszlo), 1978, Pergamon Press, Elmsford, NY; also in French.
  18. Political and Institutional Issues and the New International Economic Order (co-authored with Ervin Laszlo), 1978, Pergamon Press, Elmsford, NY.
  19. No More Dying, the future of Bio-Medical Technology, 1978, J.P. Tarcher/St. Martins, New York,1977, Dell Books; In Spanish Editiones Lazar, 1979; also in Russian, 1987.
  20. Sweet Bobby, a novel, 1974, McGraw-Hill, New York.
  21. Crown of Flowers, a novel, 1970, E.P. Dutton, New York; 1971, Ballantine Books, New York.
Television
  • "Four Weeks in the Life of the Global Economy," executive editor, senior consultant and writer; one-hour program aired nationwide on PBS in 1993 and 1994.
  • "Money!," host, four one-hour programs for NHK Television, Japan, 1994.
  • “World Money,” consultant to NHK, in Japan, 1994
  • “Managing With Lou Dobbs,” consultant to CNN Business, 1993-94.
  • “Take it Personally,” on-air business book reviewer, CNN, 1997 – present, twice monthly.
  • “United Airlines’ In-flight News Network,” commentator.
  • “Thought Leaders,” in development with PBS.
  • “Business Unusual,” on-air business book reviews, CNN
Columns

Joel Kurtzman wrote the monthly “Advisor” column for Fortune Magazine. He wrote regular columns for Chief Executive Magazine, Nikkei Business (Japan), Sappio (Japan), and The New York Times. He was the editor of Strategy & Business, a quarterly business publication and The Art of Taking Charge, also a quarterly business publication.

Research papers available upon request.

Degrees

BA, University of California, 1970, History. Recipient of the Eisner Memorial Prize, the highest award given by the University of California system to a graduate or undergraduate student.

MS, University of Houston, 1978, Studies of the Future, (economic forecasting), recipient of a Moody Foundation Fellowship