Faculty Profile

Primary Research Areas: 

• Strategy under conditions of high environmental uncertainty
• Competitive dynamics and applied game theory
• Strategic planning and decision making

►Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Hugh Courtney is a Professor of the Practice, Distinguished Teaching Fellow, and Senior Executive Education Fellow at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School’s Mack Center for Technological Innovation. His publications on strategy under uncertainty and competitive dynamics have been featured in leading practitioner journals such as the Harvard Business Review, McKinsey Quarterly, Optimize, Research ·Technology Management and Strategy & Leadership. Dr. Courtney’s recent book on strategy under uncertainty, 20/20 Foresight (Harvard Business School Press, 2001), was an Amazon.com business bestseller. He is also an award-winning MBA teacher and frequent contributor to open enrollment and custom-designed executive education programs. Before returning to academia in 2002, Dr. Courtney was an Associate Principal with McKinsey & Company in Washington, DC, where he was a leader of its Global Strategy Practice.

Selected Publications

20/20 Foresight: Crafting Strategy in an Uncertain World, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2001.

“Decision-Driven Scenarios for Assessing Four Levels of Uncertainty,” Strategy & Leadership, Volume 31, No. 1, January/February 2003.

“Making the Most of Uncertainty,” The McKinsey Quarterly, no. 4 (2001), 38-47.

“Games Managers Should Play,” The McKinsey Quarterly Anthologies: On Strategy, no. 3 (2000): 91-96.

“Strategy Under Uncertainty,” (with Jane Kirkland and Patrick Viguerie), Harvard Business Review 75, no. 6 (November-December 1997): 66-79

Honors and Awards

• National Science Foundation Fellowship
• Named one of five “Up and Comers” in management consulting, Consulting Magazine, December 2001
• Amazon.com business bestseller list, 20/20 Foresight, Fall 2001

Consulting Work

• A former leader of McKinsey & Company’s Global Strategy Practice
• Consulting practice has focused on strategy formulation and implementation in highly uncertain and oligopolistic business environments