Jonathan L. S. Byrnes is Senior Lecturer at MIT, where he has taught at the graduate level and in executive programs for over 30 years. The courses he has taught, Case Studies in Logistics and Supply Chain Management and Integrated Account Management, together cover all strategic and operational aspects of customer-supplier relationships.
He has authored over two 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). Dr. Byrnes has supervised thesis work in ABB, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Cardinal Healthcare, Cisco, Dell, Flextronics, Honeywell, iRobot, Lahey Clinic, Nebraska Medical Center, Northrop Grumman, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Raytheon, and United Technologies.
Dr. Byrnes earned a DBA from Harvard University in 1980, and an MBA (Smith Prize for academic distinction and leadership) from Columbia University in 1974. He is Past President of the Harvard Alumni Association. He also served for five years on the Board of Directors of the Harvard Business School Alumni Association, for two years on Harvard’s Committee on Shareholder Responsibility, and for four years on the Board of Directors of Harvard Magazine. He also served on a Presidential Task Force for Columbia University.
He is the author of Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink, which Inc Magazine named a Best Book of the Year, and which was published in five languages.
Dr. Byrnes and John Wass (SCM ’99) recently co-authored, Choose Your Customer: How to Compete with the Digital Giants and Thrive, which will be published by McGraw Hill in May 2021.
He is Chairman and Founder of Profit Isle an innovative profit analytics and profit acceleration SaaS software company that has accelerated the profitability of over $100 billion in client revenues. Dr. Byrnes served on the Board of Directors of MSC Direct (NYSE – MSM) for over a decade, and on the boards of directors or boards of advisors of several private companies.
He also is President of Jonathan Byrnes & Co., a focused consulting company that he founded in 1976. He has advised over fifty major companies and industry associations.
