Dr. Robert C. Wood is a Professor in the School of Management at San José State University. Dr. Wood studies how leaders make successful innovation possible in large human systems of all kinds.

Before coming to San Jose, Wood was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Business School in the Program on Organizational Change. He completed his doctorate in Management Policy and Strategy at Boston University, where his thesis dealt with how companies overcome inertia and begin innovating effectively. Research for his dissertation dealt with companies including IBM, GE Capital, Monsanto, and NIPSCO. 

Wood’s research has resulted in publications appearing in journals such as Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Technology Review, Policy Review, Asia, and European Management Journal.   He is academic advisor to the Global Leadership and Technology Exchange, a global, senior executive-driven consortium of large companies seeking to re-engineer their value chains to cope with today's environmental problems and achieve low-carbon growth. The consortium funds on-going studies on how managers can integrate research on strategic management and leadership to achieve the changes needed.

Prior to his doctoral studies, Wood was a journalist for more than 20 years.  His work appeared in such publications as Forbes, the Financial Times of London, and the New York Times. He is a former associate editor of Inc. magazine.  Much of Wood’s journalism dealt with Asia and with Asian-influenced management techniques.