Douglas K. Smith

Doug Smith is a consultant, writer, thinker, historian, teacher, lawyer and inventor who has made distinguished contributions in wide-ranging ways:

Management thinking and practice

• Acknowledged as one of the world’s leading management thinkers and consultants
• Has contributed to innovation, strategy and change in scores of organizations across more than forty industries in all three sectors: private, government and non-profit
• Cited in High Impact Consulting for having the number one impact of all consultants mentioned.  His philosophy and practices routinely generate better than 50:1 returns
• As a McKinsey & Company Partner and co-leader of the Firm’s worldwide organization practice, launched the “horizontal organization,” a part of the reengineering revolution that Fortune called “the model for the next fifty years”
• Most recently authored On Value and Values -- a sweeping vision to revitalize our values for our world
• Co-authored The Wisdom of Teams and The Discipline of Teams, books used by millions of people in organizations the world over
• Authored Make Success Measurable and Taking Charge of Change -- books praised for using performance to drive real change in a dynamic world

Education and social change

• Author of On Value and Values: Thinking Differently About We In An Age Of Me, a social commentary and moral philosophy that has been compared in breadth and depth to Aristotle’s Politics and DeTocqueville’s Democracy In America.
• Designed Achieving Excellence In Community Development, a performance-driven leadership program causing profound shifts in scores of affordable housing organizations across the United States while simultaneously setting a remarkably higher standard for results in adult education
• Executive Director of The Punch Sulzberger Leadership Program for leaders of news organizations seeking to navigate the profound changes affecting their industry: www.sulzbergerleadership.com
• Co-authored Sources of The African Past, an innovative, college-level introduction to 19th century African history that puts student and teacher on a level playing field through it’s presentation of original sources
• Taught high school math, physics and chemistry in The Gambia, West Africa and introduced set theory and “new” math to schools nation-wide
• Co-Chairman of Legal Affairs, award winning web-based magazine restoring reason and trust to the intersection of law, life and culture
• Member of Executive Committee that rearchitected governance at Yale University in early 1970s

Technology

• Co-invented (patents pending) non-linear arrayed video -- system and methods for creating and viewing fully browseable video – an entirely new form of education and entertainment
• Co-created McKinsey’s Rapid Response Network, one of the world’s earliest and longest lasting innovations in knowledge management
• Former Chairman of E-Lab, company that applied cultural anthropology to invent new methods of behavior-based market research
• Chairman of Foothold Technology, company bringing the benefits of application service technology to the non-profit sector
• Wrote Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, Then Ignored Personal Computing -- widely celebrated as one of the classic books of the Information Age

Industries Served