George Stalk
Partner Emeritus
George Stalk is a Partner Emeritus at BanyanGlobal. He led Banyan’s strategy practice, which focuses on creating unassailable competitive advantage in family enterprises. For many years, he was a Senior Partner at The Boston Consulting Group, where he advised family and non-family enterprises on developing business strategies. He has consulted to a variety of leading manufacturing, technology, and consumer products companies throughout North and South America, Europe, and throughout Asia. He is considered one of the world’s top strategy consultants.
Several of George’s books and articles are required reading in many business schools. He co-authored the best-selling books on time-based competition: Competing Against Time and Kaisha: The Japanese Corporation. Articles by George have been published by several business publications, including Harvard Business Review, where one of his articles won the McKinsey Award for being the best of its year. He also speaks regularly before business and industry associations on time-based competition and other strategy topics. Business Week identified him as one among a new generation of leading management gurus. He was also listed as one of the top ten consultants by Consulting Magazine.
A somewhat controversial book—Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?—was published in 2004. Using extensive and deep examples, George argues that companies are obligated to compete, win, and create losers. His recent Harvard Business Review article on this topic was rated by readers as one of the magazine’s five best articles on strategy in the last ten years. His latest book: Memos to the CEO: Strategies in Our Future was published in 2008 by Harvard Business School Publishing. In 2012, Harvard Business Review published his first article on family businesses, “Avoid The Traps That Can Destroy Family Businesses,” co-authored with Banyan Senior Partner Henry Foley.
George holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, a Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard University. In 2008, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Strategic Management Society.
