Robert Strand 
Lecturer | Executive Director, Center for Responsible Business | Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA, UNITED STATES
Leading expert on Nordic sustainable business and Nordic capitalism
Areas of Expertise (4)
Nordic Sustainable Business
Nordic Capitalism
Corporate Social Responsibility
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
About
Robert Strand is the Executive Director of the Center for Responsible Business and Lecturer at the Berkeley Haas School of Business. His research and teaching compares U.S. and Nordic approaches to sustainable and socially responsible business. He has more recently turned attention to contrast varieties of capitalism in the U.S. and Nordic contexts and is currently working on the book project "Sustainable Vikings." He was a United States Fulbright Scholar to Norway.
Prior to joining academia as a professor with the Copenhagen Business School, Strand spent a decade in industry with IBM and Boston Scientific in a range of roles in manufacturing, supply chain, marketing, strategy, and investor relations. He holds a PhD in corporate social responsibility from the Copenhagen Business School, an MBA in international business from the University of Minnesota (completed at HEC-Paris), and a BS in industrial engineering from the University of Wisconsin. With his wife Sarah, he is the proud parent of two wonderful boys.
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Education (3)
Copenhagen Business School: PhD, Doctoral School of Organization & Management Studies
University of Minnesota: MBA, International Business
University of Wisconsin: BS, Industrial Engineering
Links (3)
Honors & Awards (9)
Berkeley Haas Case of the Year Award 2019
for "Patagonia's Path to Carbon Neutrality by 2025"
Berkeley Haas Case of the Year Award 2017
for "Patagonia: Driving Sustainable Innovation by Embracing Tensions"
Nykredit CSR Research Talent Award
2013
Society for Business Ethics Founders’ Award
2012
Next Generation Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) Scholar Award
2010
Bush Leadership Fellow & Award, Archibald Bush Foundation
2009-10
Society for Business Ethics Emerging Scholar Award
2008
Net Impact Distinguished Member Award
2008
U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Norway
2005-06
Positions Held (1)
At Haas since 2014
2014 – present, Executive Director, Berkeley Haas Center for Responsible Business
2014 – present, Lecturer, Berkeley Haas
2012 – 2014, Assistant Professor of Leadership & Sustainability, Copenhagen Business School
2009 – 2012, Ph.D. Fellow, Copenhagen Business School
2006 – 2009, Principal Market Planner, Boston Scientific Corporation
2005 – 2006, U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Norway
2003 – 2005, Industrial Engineer, Boston Scientific Corporation
1999 – 2003, Industrial Engineer, IBM Corporation
Media Appearances (7)
AI is coming. What does that mean for business education?
Poets & Quants online
2018-10-23
Robert Strand, Executive Director of the Center for Responsible Business, warns students can be too focused on the undeniable power of machine learning, and not the risks. "My concern involves the unintended consequences of AI – the aspects that were not by design but nevertheless are an outcome in a world where AI is everywhere," he said.
Jeans giant adopts new operating model
Innovators Magazine online
2018-02-27
Robert Strand, executive director for the Berkeley-Haas Center for Responsible Business, added: “This is a significant win for the industry. It’s inspiring to see how LS&Co. used constraints to drive innovation, paving the way for a more sustainable apparel industry. This is an important step forward that I hope others will follow.”
MBA Application: 6 Of The Best US Business Schools For Social Impact
Business Because online
2017-08-29
Of the school’s commitment to addressing social and environmental challenges, Robert Strand, executive director of Haas’ Center for Responsible Business said: “We live and breathe social impact at Berkeley. Berkeley-Haas is a pioneer innovating social impact solutions, from our longstanding Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) to our expansive curricular opportunities, which include our Social Lean Launchpad course and our hosting of the annual Patagonia Case Competition.”
How CEOs Decided Trump Is a Bad Investment
Fortune online
2017-08-16
CEOs have been rapidly fleeing President Trump’s business councils. The CEOs of Merck, Intel, Under Armour (UAA, +1.46%)—and now 3M (MMM, +0.88%) and Campell’s Soup (CPB, -0.59%)—are all gone.
I just got up to get a cup of coffee. Did I miss anything? Oh, the president disbanded the business councils altogether. Hold on—another update: United Technologies (UTX, +1.72%) CEO Greg Hayes just resigned from the council. Sorry Greg, you’ve got to move a lot faster than that to stay ahead of the perpetual turmoil that is Donald Trump.
How Businesses Can Profit with Purpose
San Francisco Chronicle online
2017-06-28
How do you motivate someone to work?
Who’s In Charge of Sustainability at Your Favorite Brand?
Racked online
2016-11-23
Robert Strand, the executive director of the Center for Responsible Business at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, studies the emergence of CSOs and says that it can be difficult to pin down who fills that role at different companies because it might be designated by a host of related terms, like "corporate social responsibility" or "corporate citizenship." Case in point: Nike first created a VP of Corporate Responsibility position in 1998, before renaming it a few times and ultimately landing on Chief Sustainability Officer in 2014.
Scandinavia can be an inspiration for creating shared value
Financial Times online
2014-04-25
Michael Porter, renowned management strategist and author of the influential Competitive Strategy (1980) and Competitive Advantage (1985), has recently performed a dramatic shift toward encouraging co-operation with the article Creating Shared Value. This shift is welcomed given that sustainability challenges are too big and urgent for any single actor to effectively address alone. Redirecting focus on co-operation, however, will demand concerted effort given Porter’s past success at embedding an almost rote allegiance to “competitive advantage” in the minds of business people. Scandinavian business can provide inspiration.
Selected Papers & Publications (10)
Robert Strand and Dara O’Rourke
2017
Robert Strand, R. Edward Freeman, and Kai Hockerts
2014
Mette Morsing, Robert Strand
2014
Robert Strand and R Edward Freeman
2013
Robert Strand
2014
Robert Strand
2013
Robert Strand
2011
Robert Strand
2011
Robert Strand
2009
Robert Strand
2008
Teaching (3)
Sustainable Business in the Nordics
XMBA296.5
Sustainable Business in the Nordics
MBA 292C
Sustainable Business in the Nordics
UGBA192T-1
Social