Robert Samuel Kaplan (born 1940) is an American accounting academic, and Emeritus Professor of Leadership Development at the
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA ...
. He is known as co-creator of
Balanced Scorecard. together with
David P. Norton.
Biography
Kaplan started his academic career at
Tepper School of Business
The Tepper School of Business is the business school of Carnegie Mellon University. It is located in the university's campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US.
The school offers degrees from the undergraduate through doctoral levels, in addition t ...
at Carnegie-Mellon University in 1968. Kaplan did Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and Masters in Electrical Engineering at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...
.
Later, Kaplan joined the role of Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA ...
[Robert S. Kaplan](_blank)
profile at Harvard Business School. Accessed 10.02.2015 in 1984 after serving as a Dean at
Carnegie-Mellon University from 1977 to 1983.
For PhD in
Operations Research
Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve decis ...
, he moved to the
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teac ...
. He was awarded honorary doctorates by the
University of Stuttgart in 1994, the
University of Lodz in 2006, and the
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to "Uptown" Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates ...
in 2008.
In 2006, Kaplan's name was added to the
Accounting Hall of Fame. In the same year, he received the Lifetime Contribution Award from the Management Accounting Section of the
American Accounting Association
The American Accounting Association (AAA) promotes accounting education, research and practice. Founded in 1916 as the American Association of University Instructors in Accounting, its present name was adopted in 1936. The Association is a volunt ...
.
Work
Balanced Scorecard
Kaplan and
David P. Norton created the
Balanced Scorecard, a means of linking a company's current actions to its long-term goals. Kaplan and Norton introduced the balanced scorecard method in their 1992 ''
Harvard Business Review
''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. ''HBR'' is published six times a year and is headquartered in Brighton, Massac ...
'' article, ''The Balanced Scorecard: Measures That Drive Performance''.
This method has been endorsed by companies from every industry and corner of the world as evidenced by the Palladium Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame for Executing Strategy and Bain & Company's Management Tools and Trends report. He has also published in the fields of
strategy
Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "ar ...
,
cost accounting
Cost accounting is defined as "a systematic set of procedures for recording and reporting measurements of the cost of manufacturing goods and performing services in the aggregate and in detail. It includes methods for recognizing, classifying, al ...
and
management accounting
In management accounting or managerial accounting, managers use accounting information in decision-making and to assist in the management and performance of their control functions.
Definition
One simple definition of management accounting is t ...
. He is a co-founder, with
David P. Norton, of ESM Software Group, and has been integrally involved in the thought leadership work of
Palladium International and its past iterations (i.e., Palladium Group, Balanced Scorecard Collaborative, Renaissance Worldwide). Norton and Kaplan remain affiliated with Palladium.
Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC)
Kaplan and Steven Anderson co-developed time-driven activity-based costing, or TDABC, a methodology for companies to fully understand costs and to assist them to get on a simpler and more powerful path to increased profits. Most recently, this methodology is being applied to healthcare, in order to measure health care delivery costs across an entire care continuum, at the medical condition level.
Kaplan is also a prolific case writer and have featured among the top 40 case authors consistently, since the list was first published in 2016 by The Case Centre. He ranked 32nd In 2018/19, 12th in 2017/18, 18th in 2016/17 and 12th in 2015/16.
He also featured on the list of The Case Centre's all-time top authors list (covering 40 years) released in 2014.
Selected publications
Books and Textbooks, a selection:
* Kaplan, R. S., Serafeim, George, & Tugendhat, Eduardo (2018, January/February). Inclusive Growth: Profitable Strategies for Tackling Poverty and Inequality. ''Harvard Business Review''.
* Kaplan, Robert S., and David P. Norton. ''The Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage.'' Harvard Business Press, 2008.
* Kaplan, Robert S., and Steven R. Anderson. ''Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing: A Simpler and More Powerful Path to Higher Profits''. Harvard Business Press, 2007
* Kaplan, Robert S., and David P. Norton. ''Alignment: Using the Balanced Scorecard to Create Corporate Synergies.'' Harvard Business Press, 2006.
* Kaplan, Robert S., and David P. Norton. ''Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes.'' Harvard Business Press, 2004.
* Kaplan, Robert S., and David P. Norton. ''The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment.'' Harvard Business Press, 2000.
* Cooper, Robin, and Robert S. Kaplan. ''The design of cost management systems: text and cases.'' Prentice Hall, 1999.
* Kaplan, Robert S., and David P. Norton. ''The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action.'' Harvard Business Press, 1996.
Articles, a selection:
* Kaplan, Robert S., George Serafeim, and Eduardo Tugendhat. "Inclusive Growth: Profitable Strategies for Tackling Poverty and Inequality." ''Harvard Business Review'' 96.1 (2018)
* Kaplan, Robert S., and David P. Norton. "Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System." ''Harvard Business Review ''74.1 (1996): 75-85.
* Kaplan, Robert S., and David P. Norton. "The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action." ''Harvard Business Press,'' 1996.
* Kaplan, Robert S., and David P. Norton. , "The Balanced Scorecard: Measures That Drive Performance," ''Harvard Business Review,'' Jan.–Feb. 1992
*
Johnson, H. Thomas, and Robert S. Kaplan. "The rise and fall of management accounting." ''Engineering Management Review,'' IEEE 15.3 (1987): 36-44.
References
External links
Robert S. Kaplan's page on the Harvard Business School website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaplan, Robert S.
1940 births
Living people
Accounting academics
American business theorists
MIT School of Engineering alumni
Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management alumni
Carnegie Mellon University faculty
Harvard Business School faculty
Directors of Harvard Management Company
Business educators
Bestselling case authors