Tom Harnish

After serving 8 years in the Navy flying and teaching information management to admirals and generals, Tom joined Booz, Allen & Hamilton as Consulting Scientist. He worked on projects related to military communication systems, and as a member of the Bell System defense litigation team looked at innovations they'd produced as part of the (losing) economic argument for keeping the company intact. Enticed by the opportuity to work as a research scientist, Tom joined the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) in 1978 where I led a small group of brilliant developers who conceived and built the first U.S. computer-based home information system. He left OCLC to start The Harnish Group, and learned the indelible lesson that an expensive glass and chrome desk does not a consulting firm make—customers do. Returning to OCLC 18 months later, Tom led a team that developed the first PC-based OCLC terminal, and was founding director of the OCLC Microsystems Division before returning to the Research Department as a Senior Scientist. During a stint as director of an intrapeneurial group at Reynolds & Reynolds in Dayton, Ohio—an automotive computer company that has nothing to do with cigarettes—Tom led a group that designed and developed the first CD-ROM-based automotive parts catalog (for Honda) and the first showroom interactive video system (for Chrysler). He left to take a job as president of a start-up medical electronics publishing company and learned a lesson in corporate politics. Tom went on to create Flightline Electronic Publishing, pioneering the use of CD-ROM technology to publish large databases of aviation information, and snatched failure from the jaws of success. But he met a brilliant consultant, and together built the oldest and largest air tour business in the U.S., and wrote three business books that were published by John Wiley & Sons. Today they research and write on emerging workplace practices and technology.