Text Box: Sarah Kaplan Text Box: Sarah Kaplan is author of the New York Times business bestseller, Creative Destruction, challenging the notion of sustainable competitive advantage and the myth of excellence (with co-author Richard Foster). The research shows that long-established companies, instead of maintaining excellence, almost always under-perform the market over time. Ironically, the very culture and meticulously maintained systems that fuel the good times cause companies to stall out. Firms may experience cultural lock-in.   The book describes how such lock-in occurs and suggests ways that firms can break out and reinvent themselves (with implications for top management, strategy making, organizational structure and incentives). The solution involves simultaneously achieving more change (both creation and destruction) and finding a delicate balance with operational excellence.   My current research focuses on how cognition, capabilities and incentives intertwine in companies and industries to create its organizational architecture. I explore how such architecture, when tightly linked and routinized over time, can lead to lock-in. I also examine the ways that managers can, through purposeful action to reframe the situation, drive adaptation and change.   My research explores the biotechnology, fiber optics, personal digital assistants, financial services and nanotechnology fields.   Formerly a professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a consultant and innovation specialist for nearly a decade at McKinsey & Company in New York, I completed my doctoral research in Management of Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).   I am currently a Senior Editor at Organization Science and an Associate Editor at the Academy of Management Annals.     Education   Ph.D. in Management, 2004 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management   M.A. in International Relations and International Economics, 1990 Johns Hopkins University, Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)   B.A. in Political Science, 1986 University of California, Los Angeles   Academic Appointments   Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto    Associate Professor of Strategic Management (July 2009-present) Fellow, Desautels Center for Integrative Thinking (July 2009-present)   The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania    Assistant Professor of Management (2004-2009)    Senior Fellow affiliated with the Mack Center for Technological Innovation (2009-present)   Contact information   Sarah Kaplan Associate Professor of Strategic Management Rotman School, University of Toronto 105 St. George St., Room 537 Toronto, ON M5S 3E6, Canada 416-978-7403 skaplan@rotman.utoronto.ca Rotman website: http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/facbios/viewFac.asp?facultyID=sarah.kaplan Personal website: http://rotman.utoronto.ca/sarah.kaplan/ Google Scholar site here