J Barkev Kassarjian

Professor Emeritus of Strategy and Organization

J Barkev Kassarjian (1935-2023) was Professor Emeritus of Strategy and Organization. He held a joint appointment at Babson College as Professor of Management where he was also Chairman of the Management Division (1981-1987).

During his long and distinguished career, he published a book, numerous articles, and a large number of cases in a variety of industrial and geographical settings. Other writings aimed at a practitioner audience included It’s the Performance, Stupid for Babson Insights, and The Elusive Balance: Navigating the Paradoxes of Academic Life, a chapter in Phronesis in Business Schools (Information Age Publishing).  Jolt your managers out of their comfortable groove – they may learn to lead change, and The Paradox of Leading Change both appeared as IMD Perspectives for Managers.

Kassarjian was the recipient of two case-writing awards. His three-part case series, Sony Europa (A), (B), and (C), co-authored with K Kashani, won the 1999 European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) case writing prize in the Change Management category. And his case Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal won the European Case Clearing House/Business Week 2000 European Case Award in Policy and General Management. He was also the recipient of the 2015 Kennedy Award for Excellence in Teaching at Babson College and the 2013 Deans’ Prize for Excellence in Teaching in graduate programs at Babson College.

Prior to joining IMD and Babson, he was on the faculty of Harvard Business School, where he taught organizational behavior, and he was involved in establishing Harvard-related graduate institutes in Iran and the Philippines. He had also been engaged in the design and teaching of executive programs at Harvard, IMD, and Babson, as well as private programs in the Americas, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.

Kassarjian’s career reflected an abiding interest in management education at the senior level in diverse cultural settings with expertise in global competitive dynamics, leading change (strategic and organizational), and senior management team building.

He obtained his MBA and DBA at Harvard University, where he also served as a research associate during his doctoral studies. Prior to attending graduate school, he obtained a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University.

Kassarjian also served as a consultant to private and public organizations in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, in areas such as leading change, strategic restructuring, and senior management team building.

Insight for Executives
Article
The shock of the old

In this article, the author says that Nicollò Machiavelli's realism still has the power to shake us out of woolly PC management thinking.

Leadership
1 October 2006