Willy C. Shih

Education

Ph.D., chemistry, University of California, Berkeley; S.B., chemistry, and S.B., life sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Summary of Experience

Dr. Shih is a professor in the Technology and Operations Management unit at the Harvard Business School (HBS), where he focuses on intellectual property, manufacturing, and supply chain issues for complex technical products. Prior to joining the HBS faculty, Dr. Shih worked in private industry for 28 years, holding senior management positions at IBM Corporation, Digital Equipment Corporation, Silicon Graphics Computer Systems, and Eastman Kodak. While in private industry, Dr. Shih had direct responsibility for manufacturing operations in various countries, including the United States, Ireland, Mexico, Japan, and China. He is currently on the board of directors of Flextronics International, the second largest electronic manufacturing and supply chain services provider in the world, and he is an advisor to the Manufacturing Academy of Denmark. Dr. Shih is coauthor of the book Producing Prosperity: Why America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance, and his paper "Restoring American Competitiveness" won the 2009 McKinsey Award for the best paper in the Harvard Business Review. Dr. Shih has also developed many case studies for the HBS curriculum that explore manufacturing issues in industries such as consumer electronics, media and entertainment, automobiles, aerospace, and semiconductors.