Wickham Skinner

C. Wickham Skinner (February 20, 1924 – January 28, 2019) was an American business theorist. He was the Emeritus James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.

Wickham Skinner
Born	20 February 1924[1] Cincinnati
Died	January 28, 2019 (aged 94) Saint George, Maine[2]
Education	Yale University Harvard Business School
Occupation	Academic

Early life

Wickham Skinner graduated from Yale University, with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering.[3][4] After serving with the Engineering Corps for duty on the Manhattan Project, Skinner earned a masters in business administration degree from the Harvard Business School in 1948.[4]

Career

Skinner worked for Honeywell for a decade.[4]

Skinner became a professor at his alma mater, the Harvard business School.[3] He served as its Director of International Activities from 1967 to 1970.[4] In 1974, he was awarded the James E. Robinson chair in Business Administration.[3] He was Associate Dean from 1974 to 1977.[4] One of the students he mentored was William J. Abernathy.[5]

Skinner was a director and the vice president of the Ocean Energy Institute.[4] He was the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Ghent in 2002.[4] He was a Fellow of Academy of Management.[4]

Selected writings

Books

• Impact of New Technology: People and Organizations in Manufacturing and Allied Industries (with Arup K. Chakraborty, Elsevier Science, 1982).
• Manufacturing: The Formidable Competitive Weapon (New York City: John Wiley & Sons, 1985).

Articles

• Manufacturing—Missing Link in Corporate Strategy (Harvard Business Review, May 1969).
• The Productivity Paradox (Harvard Business Review, July 1986).

References

1. Charles W. Skinner Jr.
2. Harvard Business School Professor Emeritus C. Wickham Skinner Dies at 94
3. Harvard Business School: Wickham Skinner
4. Wickham Skinner, Bloomberg Business
5. William Abernathy, 50, Dies; Harvard Business Professor, The New York Times, December 30, 1993