About Authors

About the Authors

Jeffrey and Laurie Ford are, both literally and figuratively, a marriage of theory and practice. Jeffrey an Emeritus Professor of Management in the Max M. Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, holds a B.S. in marketing from the University of Maryland, an MBA in Marketing, and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior. Both the MBA and Ph.D. are from The Ohio State University. Prior to joining Fisher, Jeffrey served on the faculties of the Institute of Management and Labor Research at Rutgers—The State University of New Jersey, and the Kelly School of Business at Indiana University.

Laurie has retired from a career as a management consultant and is now focusing on research and writing. She holds a B.S. in psychology, a Master’s degree in industrial engineering, and a Ph.D. in operations research engineering, from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Laurie was a consultant with Arthur Young in Washington D.C., then, in her own practice, served as a consultant to scores of businesses, government agencies, and not-for-profit organizations, including Intel, Mead Paper, U.S. Department of Energy, NASA, the Ohio State Medical Association, and the Ohio Hospital Association. Laurie has also taught graduate-level university courses in engineering, management, and organization design.

Jeffrey likes to say he teaches what Laurie practices, and Laurie says she practices what Jeffrey teaches. Their collaboration has resulted in a unique approach to making management easier and organizational change less painful. Jeffrey’s MBA classes, where Laurie has been a frequent and popular visitor, were recognized for their unique perspective and immediately usable content, making Jeffrey an award-winning teacher.

Laurie, who has backpacked around the world and motorcycled across the United States, is known for making the difficult happen with surprising ease. A professional speaker and program leader, she has an engineering background that provides her with the powerful tools of network theory. She has used these tools to develop a unique network-based method (dubbed “hotwiring” by some clients) to locate and resolve the invisible disconnects between individuals and groups that limit organizational performance.

Together, Jeffrey and Laurie have coauthored many articles for academic and professional management journals including Harvard Business Review and Organizational Dynamics. Coauthors of “Deadline Busting: How to be a Star Performer in Your Organization,” they also publish regular blogs, free to subscribers.

Articles by the Authors

All Ears by Laurie appeared in the January-February 2020 issue of India’s first management magazine The Smart Manager.