Henry Chesbrough

Adjunct Professor | Mike and Carol Meyer Fellow | Faculty Director of the Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation, Haas School of Business
circle headshot of Henry Chesbrough

"Open innovation argues that the future belongs to those who do the best job of integrating the best of their internal ideas and capabilities with the best external ideas and capabilities. Designing and orchestrating a global network of capabilities is the basis for a brighter future for us all."

Henry Chesbrough is Faculty Director of the Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation within the Institute of Business Innovation at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Previously, he was an assistant professor of business administration, and the Class of 1961 Fellow at the Harvard Business School. He holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of California-Berkeley, an MBA from Stanford University, and a BA from Yale University, summa cum laude.

His research focuses on managing technology and innovation.  He is known as “the father of open innovation”, due to his book, Open Innovation (Harvard Business School Press, 2003).  This book was named a “Best Business Book” by Strategy & Business magazine, and the best book on innovation on NPR’s All Things Considered.  Scientific American magazine named him one of the top 50 technology and business leaders in recognition of his research on industrial innovation.  An academic version of open innovation, Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm, with Wim Vanhaverbeke and Joel West, was published in 2006 by Oxford University Press. 

His second book, Open Business Models (Harvard Business School Press, 2006), extends his analysis of innovation to business models, intellectual property management, and markets for innovation.  It was named one of the ten best books on innovation in 2006 by BusinessWeek, and has been translated into six languages.  Henry also wrote , Open Services Innovation (Jossey Bass, 2011), which analyses open innovation in services’ contexts.  It was favorably reviewed in The Economist, and is being translated into several languages. His most recent book, Open Innovation Results: Going Beyond the Hype and Getting Down to Business (Oxford University Press, 2019),  offers the latest theory and evidence from open innovation processes, and discusses how to get real business results from it.

His academic work has been published in Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, Sloan Management Review, Research Policy, Industrial and Corporate Change, Research-Technology Management, Business History Review, and the Journal of Evolutionary Economics.  He is the author of more than 20 case studies on companies in the IT and life sciences sectors, available through Harvard Business School Publishing.  He contributes a blog to Forbes.com, and is a member of the Editorial Board of Research Policy and the California Management Review.

Prior to embarking on an academic career, he spent ten years in various product planning and strategic marketing positions in Silicon Valley companies. He worked for seven of those years at Quantum Corporation, a leading hard disk drive manufacturer and a Fortune 500 company.  Previously, he worked at Bain and Company.  He tweets @Openinno, and co-manages the Openinnovation.net website, an open innovation resource for managers and academics alike.  

Henry also co-creates impactful custom programs for our corporate, government, and university partners.  

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Programs for Individuals 
Academic Background 

PhD, Business Administration and Public Policy, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley

MBA, Stanford University, with Highest Honors

BA, Economics, Yale University, Summa Cum Laude

Publications & Media

Videos 

Disruptor or Disrupted | Which Will You Be

WATCH VIDEO

Ways to Innovate at Apple and Google

WATCH VIDEO

Amazon & Open Services Innovation

WATCH VIDEO

A Look Inside the Corporate Business Model Innovation program

WATCH VIDEO

What is Open Innovation?

WATCH VIDEO

Airbnb & Open Services Innovation

WATCH VIDEO
VIEW MORE
Books 

Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating And Profiting from Technology

VIEW BOOK

Open Services Innovation: Rethinking Your Business to Grow and Compete in a New Era

VIEW BOOK

Open Business Models: How to Thrive in the New Innovation Landscape

VIEW BOOK

Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm

VIEW BOOK

New Frontiers in Open Innovation

VIEW BOOK
VIEW MORE
Papers & Articles 

Open innovation: research, practices, and policies.

VIEW

The Adoption of Open Innovation in Large Firms.

VIEW

Hierarchical Segmentation of R&D Process and Intellectual Property Protection: Evidence from Mulitnational R&D Laboratories in China.

VIEW

Open R&D and Open Innovation: Exploring the Phenomenon.

VIEW
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Awards & Honors 
  • IRI Medal, Industrial Research Institute 2017
  • Honoris Causa Doctorate from Universitat de Vic, 2014
  • Leading Through Innovation Award, 2009
  • Book Open Business Models named one of Top Ten Books on Innovation by BusinessWeek magazine, 2006
  • Named as one of the Scientific American Top 50 Business and Technology leaders for 2003
  • Book Open Innovation named Best Business Book on Innovation by Strategy and Business magazine in 2003
  • Received NEDO/METI scholarship for research on spin-offs, March, 2003
  • Appointed Sasakawa Foundation Research Fellow, Haas School of Business, January 2002, and January 2003
  • Appointed Class of 1961 Fellow, Harvard Business School, 1999
  • Awarded Robert Noyce Memorial Fellowship in Industrial Competitiveness from the Intel Foundation, 1995-1997
  • Awarded Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor at UC Berkeley, May, 1996
Programs for Individuals 
Academic Background 

PhD, Business Administration and Public Policy, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley

MBA, Stanford University, with Highest Honors

BA, Economics, Yale University, Summa Cum Laude

Publications & Media

Videos 

Disruptor or Disrupted | Which Will You Be

WATCH VIDEO

Ways to Innovate at Apple and Google

WATCH VIDEO

Amazon & Open Services Innovation

WATCH VIDEO

A Look Inside the Corporate Business Model Innovation program

WATCH VIDEO

What is Open Innovation?

WATCH VIDEO

Airbnb & Open Services Innovation

WATCH VIDEO
VIEW MORE
Books 

Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating And Profiting from Technology

VIEW BOOK

Open Services Innovation: Rethinking Your Business to Grow and Compete in a New Era

VIEW BOOK

Open Business Models: How to Thrive in the New Innovation Landscape

VIEW BOOK

Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm

VIEW BOOK

New Frontiers in Open Innovation

VIEW BOOK
VIEW MORE
Papers & Articles 

Open innovation: research, practices, and policies.

VIEW

The Adoption of Open Innovation in Large Firms.

VIEW

Hierarchical Segmentation of R&D Process and Intellectual Property Protection: Evidence from Mulitnational R&D Laboratories in China.

VIEW

Open R&D and Open Innovation: Exploring the Phenomenon.

VIEW
VIEW MORE