ABOUT JOHN HAGEL
John has spent over 40 years in Silicon Valley and has experience as a management consultant, entrepreneur, speaker and author. He is driven by a desire to help individuals and institutions around the world to increase their impact in a rapidly changing world.
After recently retiring as a partner from Deloitte, McGraw Hill will be publishing in May John’s new book, The Journey Beyond Fear, that addresses the psychology of change and he is developing a series of programs to help people navigate through change at many levels. John has founded a new company, Beyond Our Edge, LLC, that works with companies and people who are seeking to anticipate the future and achieve much greater impact.
While at Deloitte, John was the founder and leader of the global Center for the Edge with the mission of identifying emerging business opportunities that should be on the agenda of CEO’s, but are not, and doing the research to persuade them to put them on their agenda. He has also worked with McKinsey & Co. and Boston Consulting Group. He also served as senior vice president of strategy at Atari, Inc., and is the founder of two Silicon Valley startups.
He currently is on the Board of Trustees of the Santa Fe Institute, an organization that conducts leading edge research on complex adaptive systems. He also serves on the faculty of Singularity University. He has also led a number of initiatives regarding business transformation with the World Economic Forum.
In addition to his new book, John is the author of 7 books, including The Power of Pull, Net Gain, Net Worth, Out of the Box and The Only Sustainable Edge. He is widely published and quoted in major business publications including The Economist, Fortune, Forbes, Business Week, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal, as well as general media like the New York Times, NBC and BBC. He has won two awards from Harvard Business Review for best articles in that publication and has been recognized as an industry thought leader by a variety of publications and institutions, including the World Economic Forum and Business Week.
John has spoken at a wide variety of leading conferences including the Davos Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum and the TED conference. He also speaks at many leadership gatherings of major corporations and other institutions.
His personal blog for 15 years was Edge Perspectives but now his more recent personal blog posts can be found on this website. He is active in social media and can be followed on Twitter and LinkedIn.
John holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University, a B.Phil. from Oxford University and a JD and MBA from Harvard University.
2020 – present
Founder of Beyond Our Edge, LLC that helps companies and individuals to anticipate and address opportunities for exponential growth.
2007 –2020
Founder and co-chairman of Deloitte LLP‘s Center for the Edge, a research center based in Silicon Valley with branches in Amsterdam, Melbourne, and Singapore. In addition to leading the research into emerging business opportunities that are not yet on the CEO’s agendahe also worked with clients to help them get more impact as they pursue these opportunities
2001 – 2007
Independent management consultant working with companies around the world on business strategy and opportunities to improve performance.
2000 – 2001
12 Entrepreneuring, Inc. – Chief Strategy Officer
San Francisco-based operating company focused on building businesses in the Web services technology arena. Led a team responsible for: evaluating new investment opportunities, providing strategic counsel to 12 Entrepreneuring’s partner companies and synthesizing perspectives on the likely evolution of Web services technology and the implications for business value creation. Helped to launch and build two promising Web services providers, Grand Central and NorthStar.
1984 – 2000
McKinsey & Company – Principal
Global Leader of McKinsey’s Electronic Commerce Practice (which he founded and led from 1993-2000) as well as a leader in McKinsey’s Strategy Practice. Served a broad range of clients across the world, focusing on strategic management and operational performance improvement.
1982-1984
Atari, Inc. – Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning
Helped lead successful turnaround of Atari’s Home Computer Division; helped to build profitable application software business
1980-1982
Sequoia Group, Inc. – Founder and CEO
Founded and led value added reseller providing turnkey computer systems to physicians. Built start-up to $5 million in revenue, becoming the largest provider in its vertical market. Sold the company to MetPath, the largest clinical lab company in the U.S.
1978-1984
Boston Consulting Group – Consultant
Served senior management of a broad range of large enterprises on business strategy issues
Academic Background
MBA – Harvard Business School – 1978
JD – Harvard Law School – 1978
B.Phil. – Oxford University – 1974
BA – Wesleyan University – 1972
Awards and Honors
Accenture (2003) – Top 100 Business Gurus
Network World (2002) – 50 Most Powerful People in Networking
World Economic Forum (2000) – Forum Fellow
Business Week (1999) – Named one of the 25 most influential people in electronic business
Upside (1999) – Designated one of the Elite 100 Most Influential People in the Digital World
McKinsey Award – Best articles published in Harvard Business Review
- 1999 – Unbundling the Corporation
- 2001 – Your Next IT Strategy
Affiliations
World Economic Forum – Forum Fellow and Co-Chair of the Global Futures Council on Systems and Platforms
Santa Fe Institute – Trustee
Independent Institute – Trustee
Harvard Business School Research Center – former Steering Committee member
Singularity University – faculty
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