James Brian Quinn (1928 – 28 August 2012) was an American academic and author. Quinn was a longtime professor at the

Tuck School of Business The Tuck School of Business (also known as Tuck, and formally known as the Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance) is the graduate business school of Dartmouth College, a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Founded in ...

and a proponent of

knowledge management Knowledge management (KM) is the collection of methods relating to creating, sharing, using and managing the knowledge and information of an organization. It refers to a multidisciplinary approach to achieve organisational objectives by making ...

. He formulated the managerial concept of intelligent enterprise in 1992.

Biography

Quinn was born in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

in 1928. He attended

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, where he obtained a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

in 1949. Quinn then obtained a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

business administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and a doctorate in

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. In 1957, Quinn became a professor at the Tuck School of Business Administration, where he worked until his retirement in 1993. In the intervening years, Quinn created Tuck's curriculum for business policy and

technology policy There are several approaches to defining the substance and scope of technology policy. According to the American scientist and policy advisor Lewis M. Branscomb, technology policy concerns the "public means for nurturing those capabilities and op ...

courses. He also formulated and taught several classes related to entrepreneurship; in doing so, Quinn became a progenitor for such type of class in American universities. He also served as Tuck's William and Josephine Buchanan Professor of Management Emeritus. Quinn worked with the

United States Commerce Department The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for bu ...

during the Chinese economic reform period in 1979, and later on served as a chair on the Clinton Administration's Academic Committee for Policy Review on Innovation and Productivity. In his 1992 work ''Intelligent Enterprise'', Quinn formulated the concept of intelligent enterprise, an approach to management that applies technology and service paradigms to the challenge of improving business performance. He was a three-time recipient of the McKinsey Award. Quinn died on 28 August 2012 at the age of 84.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quinn, James Brian 1928 births 2012 deaths American writers Tuck School of Business faculty Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science alumni Columbia University alumni Harvard Business School alumni