Hirotaka Takeuchi

Hirotaka Takeuchi is a Professor of Management Practice in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School, where he currently teaches courses in the MBA and Executive Education programs. He received a BA from International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan, and an MBA and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Takeuchi''s first faculty position at Harvard was in the Marketing Unit from 1976 to 1983. Starting in 1983, he taught at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo and served as the Founding Dean of its business school from 1998 to 2010. He returned to Harvard Business School in 2010 and serves as the Faculty Chair for Japan. Prior to his academic career, he worked at McCann-Erickson in Tokyo and San Francisco and at McKinsey & Company in Tokyo.

Professor Takeuchi''s research has focused on the knowledge creation process within organizations, the competitiveness of Japanese firms in global industries, and the link between strategy and innovation. He is the author or editor of 16 books, including The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation co-authored with Ikujiro Nonaka (which won the 1995 Best New Book of the Year Award in the business and management category from the Association of American Publishers), Can Japan Compete? co-authored with Michael Porter, and Extreme Toyota: Radical Contradictions That Drive Success at the World''s Best Manufacturer co-authored with Hitotsubashi professors Emi Osono and Norihiko Shimizu (which won the Best 30 Business Books by Soundview Executive Book Summaries in 2008). His recent Harvard Business Review articles are The Wise Leader (May 2011) and Embracing Agile (May 2016).

Professor Takeuchi serves as a member of the board of directors of Mitsui & Co, Daiwa Securities, and three start-up companies, all based in Japan. He is also a director/trustee of several non-profit organizations, including Japan Society of Boston, Nonaka Institute of Knowledge, Ark Hills Club, International Christian University, and HLAB. He is or has been an adviser to Fast Retailing, All Nippon Airways, NTT DoCoMo, World Economic Forum, Japan Association of Corporate Directors, Japan Football Association, among others. He has been a member of a number of committees and councils formed by government agencies in Japan, including the Cabinet Office; Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; Ministry of Finance; Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and also a member of the editorial board of Japan Marketing Journal, Journal of Knowledge Management, and Hitotsubashi Business Review.

Hiro and his wife Nobu have two children and live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.