The Authors

He is passionate about helping organizations transform into one united force capable of embracing the future and letting go of the past. He pioneered the mega dive approach to orchestrating discussions for big groups of executives, which has been successfully implemented on a number of programs at IMD.

Cyril has a keen interest in technology and innovation. He’s created a start-up & collaboration platform – Augmented Tribes – to help executive teams progress through various stages of an innovation journey. And he is part of the faculty team having launched the program TransformTech – in collaboration with the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). The program lets senior leaders learn how new technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, robotics and the internet of things are transforming the world of business. For 2021, Cyril is working with UEFA and the Olympic Committee to foster innovation in sports and entertainment.

Cyril’s research focuses on helping people and organizations learn how to become more radical in their thinking to disrupt the market in positive ways. He has published several academic articles in the most prestigious academic journals, including Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, the Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of International Business Studies, the Journal of Management, and the Journal of Management Studies. Cyril received his PhD from Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in London (Canada) and an MBA from the University of Ottawa. His PhD dissertation won the Academy of International Business 2004 Richard Farmer Award.

Educated in France and the UK, he holds a PhD in comparative management from Loughborough University in England. His doctorate provided the foundation for the book French Management: Elitism in Action (with Peter Lawrence) and a Harvard Business Review article entitled “The Making of French Managers.”

He has a broad range of interests in the field of organizational behavior and is the author or co-author of several books including: The Global Challenge (with Paul Evans and Vladimir Pucik, 2002), Managing Across Cultures (with Susan Schneider, 2003), and The Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome (with Jean-François Manzoni, 2007), which received the book of the year award from both the Society for Human Resource Management and from HR.com. His reflection on the uses of humor in organizations, Funny Business won the Management Consultancies Association Prize for Book of the Year.

His most recent book, Quest: Leading Transformation Journeys (with Anand Narasimhan) won the Axiom gold medal in International Business. He has published more than a dozen articles in Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. Prior to joining IMD in 2008, he was a research fellow at Oxford University and Insead.

Michael Wade is a Professor of Innovation and Strategy at IMD and directs IMD’s Global Center for Digital Business Transformation. He has published works on topics such as digital business transformation, innovation, strategy, and digital leadership, including ten books and more than a hundred case studies and articles. Michael has been named one of the top ten digital thought leaders in Switzerland several times, most recently in 2020, and appears frequently in mainstream media.

He obtained Honours BA, MBA and PhD degrees from the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, Canada. Previously, Michael was the Academic Director of the Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA Program and has been nominated for teaching awards in MBA, International MBA, and Executive MBA programs.

At IMD, Michael directs a number of executive programs related to digital transformation, including Digital Execution, Digital Transformation for Boards, and Digital Disruption. He also founded and directs Europe’s first and largest program for executives on digital, Leading Digital Business Transformation. Michael also directs several custom programs related to strategy and digital business transformation for hundreds of organizations. He provides consulting services, executive education, and expert evaluations to several public and private sector organizations on strategy and digital transformation and sits on a number of corporate boards as an advisor on digitization and business model disruption.

Since early 2021, Michael has been working on his new podcast Management under the Microscope where he unpacks business myths through conversations with various experts and business professionals.