Rita Gunther McGrath (born July 28, 1959, in New Haven, Connecticut) is an Academic Director in Executive Education and professor of management at Columbia Business School with a research interest in strategic management. Her research focuses on innovation and entrepreneurship, including the development of discovery-driven planning.[1][2][3]
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McGrath graduated from Barnard College in 1981 and earned a Master of Public Administration from the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University in 1982.[3] In 1993, she completed her Ph.D. at The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) with a dissertation entitled Developing New Competence in Established Organizations.[4]
After graduating in 1993, McGrath joined Columbia as an Assistant Professor of Management.[3] In 1998, she was promoted to Associate Professor of Management, and later, she became a full Professor in the Faculty of Executive Education.[3] In 2009, she was elected Fellow of the Strategic Management Society,[5] and in 2014 she was elected the Deputy Dean of their Fellows.[6]
In 2013, she was elected Fellow of the International Academy of Management.[citation needed]
McGrath is also the founder of the innovation platform Valize.[7]
2022: Inducted into the Business Excellence Hall of Fame by the Business Excellence Institute[9]
2016: Theory to Practice award from the Vienna Strategy Forum[9]
2013: Distinguished Achievement Award in Strategy from Thinkers50[10]
Selected publications
Books
MacMillan, Ian C. and Rita Gunther McGrath. The entrepreneurial mindset: Strategies for continuously creating opportunity in an age of uncertainty. Vol. 284. Harvard Business School Press, 2000.
MacMillan, Ian C., and Rita Gunther McGrath. MarketBusters: 40 Strategic Moves That Drive Exceptional Business Growth. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2005.
MacMillan, Ian C. and Rita Gunther McGrath. Discovery Driven Growth: A breakthrough process to reduce risk and seize opportunity. Harvard Business Review Press, 2009.[11]
McGrath, Rita Gunther. The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2013.
McGrath, Rita Gunther. Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019.[12]
References
↑Zahra, Shaker A., and Gerard George. "Absorptive capacity: A review, reconceptualization, and extension." Academy of management review 27.2 (2002): 185-203.
↑Hitt, Michael, R. Duane Ireland, and Robert Hoskisson. Strategic management cases: competitiveness and globalization. Cengage Learning, 2012.
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