Donald Sull

Donald Sull is a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Sull is a global authority on managing in turbulent markets, and directs a week long course on effectively executing strategy in volatile markets.  He has been identified as a leading management thinker by The Economist, the Financial Times, and Fortune which named him among the ten new management gurus to know. The Economist listed his theory of active inertia among the ideas that shaped business management over the past century.

He has published five books, including The Upside of Turbulence (2009).  His book_  Made in China _ was named one of the top eight business books of 2005 by the Financial Times and his book Why Good Companies Go Bad was a finalist for the Academy of Management’s Outstanding Management Book Award. Sull has also written over 100 book chapters, case studies, and articles, including several bestselling Harvard Business Review articles.

As a consultant and management educator, Sull has worked with companies including Mars, Oracle, PIMCO, Royal Bank of Canada, Standard Chartered Bank, Emirates Airline, Baker & McKenzie, Burberry, and Schneider Electric.  He speaks regularly at leading management conferences, such as Microsoft’s CEO Summit and the McKinsey Strategy Summit.

Prior to academia, he worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Company, and a management-investor with the leveraged buyout firm Clayton & Dubilier on the Uniroyal-Goodrich Tire Company deal. He remains active in private equity as an investor and advisor to start-up companies.  He lives in London and Cape Cod.

Sull received his AB, MBA, and doctorate from Harvard University, where he taught entrepreneurship at the Harvard Business School before rejoining the London Business School faculty as a professor of management practice in strategy and entrepreneurship.  Sull has won teaching awards at both London Business School and Harvard University.

Education

• MBA with Highest Distinction Harvard University
• AB Cum Laude Harvard University
• Doctorate Harvard University

Companies

• Co-Founder CultureX (2018)
• Strategic Advisor E. J. McKay & Co. (2017)
• Chairman FilmFish (2014)
• Strategic Advisor Afterburner (2014)
• Senior Lecturer MIT Sloan School of Management (2013)
• Co-Founder and Co-Director of X-Lab MIT Sloan School of Management (2016 — 2018)
• Strategic Advisor Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (2015 — 2017)
• Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship London Business School (2004 — 2015)
• Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship Harvard Business School (2000 — 2004)

Skills

• Entrepreneurship
• Strategy