John Sviokla
Executive Fellow Harvard Business School at Harvard Business School
John Sviokla
Executive Fellow Harvard Business School at Harvard Business School
Chicago, Illinois
Overview
Work Experience
Executive Fellow Harvard Business School
2024 - Current
I'm working with Professor Jeffrey Rayport to create Generative AI materials for the HBS curriculum.
Co-Founder
2023
Generative AI Insights is a firm dedicated to bringing senior executives the best conferences, training and research for this vital new wave.
Partner
2020 - 2023
Manifold is a venture holding company designed to help companies, investments and people grow and grow profitably. I help lead the consulting team, advise startups and opine on investments as well as coach senior executives at client firms.
Strategic Advisor
2018 - 2023
I work with companies, leaders and boards to ethically grow their firms in a world transformed by technology. Having served as Chief Marketing Officer at PwC, Vice Chairman at Diamond Technology Partners, lead The Exchange, a global think tank serving the world's largest firms, and having taught at Harvard Business School as a professor for a decade, I have seen growth and leadership and value creation from all angles: doing it, studying it, leading it.
Principal, US Marketing Leader
2016 - 2018
I am leading a transformational change effort focused on redesigning the US marketing function ($100M+ budget and 300+ people) to effectively present the firm as a leading competitor in the professional services market. I have developed the operating model and control systems for an integrated functional area with motivated management, a new mix of talent, and clear customer-focused strategy based on data-innovation and data-driven decision making.
Principal & Business Leader: Strategy & Innovation
2010 - 2018
As a member of the PwC US Leadership Team, I worked to deliver the deal value of the Diamond acquisition, including integrating the skill sets of 500+ consultants across the advisory practice for maximum revenue growth. I also contributed to the successful integration of advisory firms PRTM and Booz & Company into the PwC Advisory practice, resulting in the productization of a full strategy-to-execution capability. Overall the PwC Advisory business has grown from $1 billion in 2010 to over $3 billion in 2016. In my client work, I act as an advisor to senior executive teams looking to develop stronger technology-based innovation strategies, prepare for more rapid AI-driven change, and pursue new growth models that leverage emerging technological capabilities. Since 2010, I have championed and led The Exchange, an award-winning executive think tank that brings together scientists, senior executives, academics, and entrepreneurs to build executive relationships and exchange ideas about emerging technological and business issues. Participants include GE, GM, Walmart, and Google. This forum and my work in it enhances the PwC brand, cements executive relationships, and drives sales leads. I led a multi-year effort to investigate the methods and approaches used by 100+ of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs to create billion-dollar growth businesses. Participants included Mark Cuban, T. Boone Pickens, Joe Mansueto, Steve Case, and others. Captured the billionaire methods, and ways to apply them, in The Self-Made Billionaire Effect: How Extreme Leaders Create Massive Value (Penguin, 2015, Sviokla/Cohen). Designed new advisory offering based on those methods.
Vice Chairman and Board Member
1998 - 2010
I was a member of the Diamond Executive Leadership Team that implemented a new business strategy and revamped talent management program to enable rapid growth from $1.35/share in 2007 to $10.50/share in 2010, leading to successful acquisition by PwC. As Chief Innovation Officer, led company-wide effort to support aggressive growth goals by using advanced technology and analytics to design new delivery models and identify new sources of revenue. In my client work, I advised executive leadership teams on digital “carve-out” businesses launched between 1998 and 2010. Recognized as a hands-on strategist with experience in what works to grow digital businesses.
Board Member
2006 - 2010
I led the compensation committee that designed the negotiation strategy, pricing, and positioning for acquisition, resulting in multiple bids and eventual purchase by Merge. The AMICAS technology later motivated Merge's 2015 acquisition by IBM.
Board Member
1998 - 2002
During my board tenure I facilitated contact between the Alliant board and the board of Dutch supermarket operator Ahold, which ultimately acquired Alliant.
Associate Professor
1986 - 1998
Co-created, researched and taught first AI and ecommerce courses at Harvard Business School. Prepared aspiring leaders to use artificial intelligence and computable systems for competitive advantage. Designed and taught the first course on digital transformation: Managing in the Marketspace, 1994-1998. Consulted on strategy and the emergent potential of AI to clients such GE, Citibank, Andersen Consulting (Accenture), and others.
Education
D.B.A.
1983 - 1986
Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.)
1981 - 1983
Bachelor’s Degree
1975 - 1979
High School
1971 - 1975