Benson P. Shapiro

Benson P. Shapiro is a well-known authority on marketing strategy and sales management with particular interests in pricing, product line planning, and marketing organization. He is also the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. 

He has served as a consultant to over 340 companies including startups, medium-size firms, and large international corporations. And, he has participated in well over 170 executive education programs outside of Harvard for corporations and associations. He taught a wide variety of MBA courses including Industrial Marketing, Sales Management, Creative Marketing Strategy, Integrated Product Line Management, and participated in many executive programs. Professor Shapiro has also held many administrative positions including Senior Associate Dean for Publications, Research Director, Head of the Required MBA Marketing Course, Chair of the First Year of the MBA Program, and Faculty Chair of Strategic Marketing Management for senior marketing executives. He is the author, co-author or editor of 14 books, and 19 Harvard Business Review articles including "Leveraging to Beat the Odds: The New Marketing Mind-Set," "What the Hell is 'Market Oriented'?," "Manage Customers for Profits, Not Just Sales" and "Staple Yourself to an Order." Professor Shapiro holds a BSE (Chemical Engineering) from the University of Michigan as well as MBA (with distinction) and DBA degrees from Harvard.

Recently, Professor Shapiro has concentrated his professional time on consulting, speeches, research, and writing. He has taught in a wide variety of Harvard executive programs including the Aligning Strategy & Sales, CEO Program, and Business Marketing Strategy, and has chaired the Sustainable Market Leadership for Mid-Sized Businesses Program. He also has chaired custom executive programs for the Young Presidents’ Organization on Sustainable Market Leadership, Business-to-Business Pricing, Go-To-Market Strategies, and “Jump Start Your Revenue Growth.”

He has also participated in a wide range of pro bono consulting projects for select nonprofit organizations, amplifying and building on a continuing theme since his early days on the Harvard faculty. Among his latest activities, Professor Shapiro has acted as an instructor, mentor, venture coach, and strategic consultant in the Our Generation Speaks Program at Brandeis University, which brings young Palestinian and Jewish “shaker and movers” from Palestine (Gaza and the West Bank) and Israel to an intensive summer program teaching management, entrepreneurship, and cooperation across the ethnic divide.

His 20th Harvard Business Review article appeared in 2022 and was written with three co-authors. It deals with the application of artificial intelligence to selling and sales management. That research project is likely to yield a series of articles and case studies on the general topic. His other major research stream is focused on “the secret sauce of organizational and managerial success.”