Biography
Jonathan L.S. Byrnes is Senior Lecturer at MIT, where he has taught at the graduate level and in executive programs for twenty years. He is the author of Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink (Portfolio/Penguin October 2010), which Inc.com named to its list of Best Books for Business Owners.
He has authored over one hundred books, articles, cases, notes, and expert submissions. He wrote a monthly column on managing profitability, called “The Bottom Line,” in Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge e-newsletter (hbswk.hbs.edu) for four years (2002-2006). His blog is syndicated and appears in leading websites and publications around the world .
Dr. Byrnes earned a doctorate from Harvard University, and he is Past President of the Harvard Alumni Association. He served for five years on the Harvard Business School Alumni Association Board of Directors, and for two years on Harvard’s Committee on Shareholder Responsibility. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Harvard Magazine. In addition, he served on a recent Presidential Task Force at Columbia University.
He has supervised MIT thesis research in a number of enterprises, including ABB, Boeing, Boston Scientific, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Cardinal Health, Cisco, Dell, El Camino Hospital, Flextronics, Honeywell, iRobot, Johnson & Johnson, Lahey Clinic, Nebraska Medical Center, Northrop Grumman, Philips, Polo Ralph Lauren, Procter & Gamble, Raytheon, SanDisk, and United Technologies.
He has advised over fifty major companies and industry associations, and he is Founding Partner and Chairman of Profit Isle (www.profitisle.com), a trusted partner that combines state of the art big data analytics and change management to accelerate the profitability of tens of billions of dollars of annual client revenues. He has led a number of projects that have produced high value and lasting innovations, including direct development of several new, widely-followed business practices, including vendor-managed inventory, profit mapping, and comprehensive profitability management.
He has guided major organizations through programs of large-scale renewing change, operations and supply chain reorganization, major account management and coordination, and strategic repositioning. He also has advised one of the most prominent consulting companies on the development of an integrated national practice, and another on competitive strategy, consulting products, and marketing approaches for its supply chain and operations practice.
Dr. Byrnes serves on the Board of Directors of MSC Industrial Direct (NYSE). He has served on the Advisory Boards of Autopart International (MA), Objectiva Software (Beijing and CA), and OCO (MA), three private companies that were acquired, and he currently serves on the Advisory Boards of RMG Networks (CA), Magnuson Hotels (UK and WA), and WaveMark (MA).