David Upton

David Upton holds the American Standard Companies Chair in Operations Management.  He is a leading expert on the integration of information technology and operations management to provide competitive advantage.

David’s current work in India and other countries focuses on growing new competitive capabilities, lean systems for knowledge-based industries, and the development of rural digital enterprises. His joint work on improving competitiveness in knowledge-based industries (such as software and banking) won the prestigious 2012 Shingo Prize for research in Operational Excellence. This work has broad application for a range of organisations, such as law firms, architectural practices and medical operations. Other research has focused on the implementation of large IT systems and the integration of IT and Operations.

David’s work in Information Technology has focused on how to avoid the pitfalls of developing large IT systems in companies, 30%-60% of which typically fail, involving multi-million dollar failures and cost over-runs. Part of his approach is to decompose projects and ensure an incremental-value-based method, drawing on test-beds developed at the Harvard Business School and with Shinsei Bank in Tokyo. It has been used at a wide range of organisations, including the Pentagon, as well as companies in a broad range of sectors.

David’s work on Operations Strategy and Improvement adapts lean principles to knowledge organisations where they have not previously been seen to apply, such as architecture, law, medicine, software and innovation. This work has been rolled out across a number of organisations, much of which has included a “teach the teacher” approach to facilitate access to as many people as possible throughout the organisation.

Current projects include an Oxford-led multi-university collaboration, funded by the Centre for the Protection of the National Infrastructure. This work looks at the risks of insider cyber-attack, focussing on prevention, detection and education concerning this growing hazard for companies and their boards.

David joined Saïd Business School in 2010, having previously been Albert J Weatherhead III Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he was on the faculty from 1989-2009.

He had previously undertaken research in Artificial Intelligence at the Engineering Research Center for Intelligent Manufacturing Systems at Purdue University (1986-88) and on Flexibility in Operations at the Cambridge University Manufacturing Engineering Group (1984-85).

He has a PhD in exploring Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing from the School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, has a Masters in Engineering (MEng) and MA (Hons), both from Cambridge University, and was an undergraduate apprentice with Tube Investments in multiple service and manufacturing operations.

He is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, a Professional European Engineer and a Chartered Engineer.

Main areas of expertise:

• Competitive strategy
• Service and Manufacturing Improvement
• Information Technology
• Social Impact of Operations