Edward D. Hess
Professor Emeritus of Business Administration
Batten Executive-in-Residence Emeritus
Batten Faculty Fellow Emeritus
Academic Area
Areas of Expertise
Education: J.D., University of Virginia; L.L.M., New York University
Professor Ed Hess spent more than 20 years in the business world as a senior executive at Warburg Paribas Becker, Boettcher & Company, the Robert M. Bass Group and Arthur Andersen.
He joined academia in 2002 as an Adjunct Professor of Organization and Management at the Goizueta School of Business at Emory University where he was the Founder and Executive Director of The Center for Entrepreneurship and Corporate Growth and The Values-Based Leadership Institute.
In 2007, he joined the faculty of the Darden Business School as Professor of Business Administration and the first Batten Executive-in-Residence. He teaches in the MBA & EMBA Programs; has taught in over 21 Executive Education programs at Darden, IESE (Barcelona), the Indian School of Business, Georgia Tech and AVT Denmark and consults regularly with businesses and governmental agencies.
He is the author of 13 books and over 150 practitioner articles and over 60 Darden cases, etc., dealing with growth, with innovation and learning cultures, systems and processes. The common theme of his work is high individual and organizational performance.
His book Smart Growth was named a Top 25 business book in 2010 for business owners by Inc. Magazine and was awarded the Wachovia Award for Research Excellence. His book Learn or Die was an Amazon bestseller and was awarded the Wells Fargo Award for Research Excellence. His recent bestselling book is Hess & Ludwig, Humility Is the New Smart: Rethinking Human Excellence in the Smart Machine Age (Berrett-Koehler, 2017).
Hess' work has appeared in Fortune magazine, European Business Review, HBR, SHRM, Fast Company, Wired, Forbes, Inc., Huffington Post, Washington Post, Businessweek, the Financial Times, in more than 400 other global media publications as well as on CNBC Squawk Box, Fox Business News with Maria Bartiroma, Big Think, WSJ Radio, Bloomberg Radio with Kathleen Hayes, Dow Jones Radio, MSNBC Radio, Business Insider and Wharton Radio.
His new book Hyper-Learning: How to Adapt to the Speed of Change (Berrett-Koehler, 2020) sets forth a cognitive, emotional and behavioral model designed to enable the highest levels of human performance in the Digital Age.
Edward D. Hess's Ideas to Action Posts
The Era of Smart Technology: Public Schools Must Transform What and How They Teach
Business, Ethics & SocietyStruggling With Change? How Individuals (and Businesses) Can Learn Adaptability
Leadership & Management
Selected Publications
Hess, Edward. "The Power of an Idea Meritocracy" Darden Ideas to Action (26 April 2018)
Hess, Edward. "Transforming School Education for the Smart Machine Age" Education: Future Frontiers (March 2018)
Hess, Edward. "Becoming a Hyper Learning Community: The Future of Business" Darden Ideas to Action (25 Jan 2018)
Hess, Edward. "How Humility Can Outsmart the Smart Machines" IESE Insight (Fourth Quarter, 2017)
Hess, Edward. "Humility - The Key to Success in the Smart Machine Age" Marginalia (30 June 2017)
Hess, Edward. "In the AI Age, "Being Smart" Will Mean Something Completely Different" Harvard Business Review (19 June 2017)
Hess, Edward. "Five Big Conversations We MUST Have About Jobs and the Next Generation" Pittsburgh Better Times (27 May 2017)
Hess, Edward. "Surviving the Digital Age: 4 Corporate Transformations" Darden Ideas to Action (27 April 2017)
Hess, Edward. "The Skills Humans Need to Stay Relevant in the Smart Machine Age" AMA Playbook (24 April 2017)
Hess, Edward. "The Organization of the Future: 3 Essentials" Darden Ideas to Action (7 March 2017)
Hess, Edward. "Are You Smarter Than a Smart Machine? Why 'Old Smart' Is the New Stupid" CEOWorld Magazine (23 February 2017)
Hess, Edward. "Coming Technology Will Likely Destroy Millions of Jobs. Is "President" Trump Ready?" The Washington Post (8 February 2017)
Hess, Edward. "Who Will Lead in the Smart Machine Age?"© Forbes.com (7 February 2017)
Hess, Edward. "To Excel in the Smart Machine Age, We Need Others" Darden Ideas to Action (24 January 2017)
Hess, Edward. "Here's Why Emotions are the Secret Sauce of Innovation" Forbes.com (17 January 2017)
Hess, Edward. "The AI Revolution Will Humanize Businesses" Forbes.com (12 January 2015)
Hess, Edward. "Growth to Greatness: Smart Growth for Entrepreneurial Businesses," Ivey Business Journal, (November/December 2012).
Selected Books
Hess, Edward D. Learn or Die: Using Science to Build a Leading-Edge Learning Organization, Columbia Business School Publishing of Columbia University Press, August (2014).
Hess, Edward D. The DNA of Business Growth v. The Myths of Business Growth: A Case for Smart Growth. Darden Business Publishing, 2012.
Hess, Edward D. Grow to Greatness: Smart Growth for Entrepreneurial Business. Stanford University Press, 2012.
Hess, Edward D. Growing An Entrepreneurial Business: Concepts & Cases. Stanford University Press, 2011.
Liedtka, Jeanne and Edward D. Hess. The Physics of Business Growth: Mindsets, System and Processes. Stanford University Press, 2012.
Hess, Edward D. Smart Growth: Building an Enduring Business by Managing the Risks of Growth. Columbia Business School Publishing, 2010.
Hess, Edward D. and Charles T. Goetz. So,You Want to Start a Business?: 8 Steps to Take Before Making the Leap, 2008.
Case Studies
Advancing knowledge through research that shapes business, Darden professors are recognized thought leaders in their fields. They are not only master case method teachers, they also author many of the cases used in Darden classrooms and around the world.
Edward D. Hess' cases are available in the Darden Business Publishing website