Robert S. Kaplan

Robert S. Kaplan
Name	Robert S. Kaplan
Birth date	1940
Birth place	New York City, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Fields	Management accounting, Strategic management
Workplaces	Harvard Business School, Carnegie Mellon University
Alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University
Known for	Balanced Scorecard, Activity-based costing, Time-driven activity-based costing
Awards	American Accounting Association's Outstanding Educator Award, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants' Award

Robert S. Kaplan. He is an American accounting academic, professor emeritus at the Harvard Business School, and a co-developer of both activity-based costing and the Balanced Scorecard, seminal frameworks in modern management accounting and strategic management. His work, often conducted in collaboration with David P. Norton, has profoundly influenced how organizations measure performance and execute strategy across the globe. Kaplan is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers in the field of business management.

Early life and education

Born in New York City, he pursued his undergraduate education in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in 1960. He then earned a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from MIT in 1963 and a Ph.D. in operations research from the Cornell University College of Engineering in 1968. His technical background in engineering and operations research provided a rigorous, analytical foundation that he would later apply to problems in managerial economics and accounting.

Academic career

Kaplan began his academic career at the Carnegie Mellon University Graduate School of Industrial Administration, where he was a professor for sixteen years. In 1984, he joined the faculty of the Harvard Business School, where he served as the Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development until becoming professor emeritus. Throughout his tenure, he taught in and chaired numerous executive education programs, influencing generations of business leaders and scholars at institutions like the Harvard University campus.

Contributions to management accounting

Kaplan revolutionized cost accounting with his critical work on activity-based costing in the 1980s, arguing that traditional cost accounting systems provided misleading information for managerial decisions. He further advanced the concept with the development of time-driven activity-based costing, a more pragmatic and scalable model. His research, published in journals like the Harvard Business Review and his book Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting, co-authored with H. Thomas Johnson, challenged the profession to adapt to the information needs of modern, complex organizations.

Balanced Scorecard and strategy

In the early 1990s, in collaboration with consultant and researcher David P. Norton, Kaplan introduced the Balanced Scorecard. This strategic performance management framework expanded performance measurement beyond traditional financial statement metrics to include customer perspective, internal business processes, and learning and growth perspectives. Their work, detailed in a series of articles for the Harvard Business Review and books like The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action, provided organizations with a tool to articulate and implement corporate strategy effectively, making it a cornerstone of modern strategic management.

Other notable works and concepts

Beyond his signature frameworks, Kaplan has authored influential works on strategy maps, which visually link strategic objectives, and on corporate social responsibility measurement. He has also written extensively on applying time-driven activity-based costing in healthcare, notably in the book Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing: A Simpler and More Powerful Path to Higher Profits. His research has extended into sectors like the nonprofit organization and public sector, examining performance management in entities such as the United States Department of Defense.

Awards and recognition

Kaplan has received numerous accolades for his impact on academia and practice. These include the Outstanding Educator Award from the American Accounting Association and the Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Accountancy Profession from the Illinois CPA Society. He is a member of the Accounting Hall of Fame and has been honored by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. His prolific writing has earned him the McKinsey Award for the best article published in the Harvard Business Review.

Category:American accountants Category:Harvard Business School faculty Category:1940 births