James A. Phills

Who is James A. Phills?

Jim Phills is director of the Center for Social Innovation (CSI). He directs a number of CSI’s executive programs and teaches MBA electives on nonprofit strategy and social entrepreneurship. His research focuses on the emerging area of social innovation. In particular, Phills explores the growing exchange of ideas, talent, capital, and values across sector boundaries and the shifting roles and relationships between of business, government, and nonprofits in development of innovative solutions to social problems. He has also studied learning at the group, organizational, and societal levels of analysis.

Jim Phills is the Claude N. Rosenberg Jr. Director of Stanford’s Center for Social Innovation and Professor of Organizational Behavior (Teaching) at the Stanford Business School. He is also Academic Editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review and Faculty Director of the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders, the Executive Program for Philanthropy Leaders, and Strategy for Nonprofit Organizations. His research focuses on strategic change, organizational learning, and social innovation. Phills is the author of a number of publications on learning and change in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, including Integrating Mission and Strategy for Nonprofit Organization, which was published by Oxford University Press in 2005. Prior to moving to Stanford, he was on the faculty at the Yale School of Management where he received the Alumni Association Award for Excellence in teaching in 1995.

At Stanford, Professor Phills has taught courses on Strategic Leadership of Nonprofits, Social Innovation, Managing Strategic Change, and Interpersonal Dynamics. In addition to his research and teaching, Phills has consulted to a wide array of organizations for over 20 years. These projects range from facilitating strategic planning sessions for senior management teams to designing and delivering customized executive education programs. A partial list of his clients includes: American Electric Power, Dean & DeLuca, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, General Mills, Girl Scouts USA, Herman Miller Corporation, Hoffmann-La Roche, I-CO Global Communications, Kaiser Permanente, The Monitor Group, and the San Francisco Police Department. He has served as a nonprofit board member for College Track, The Walker Home and School, and Stanford Business School Alumni Consulting Team.

Phills is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, holds a Master's degree in Psychology and Social Relations from Harvard University, and received his PhD in Organizational Behavior from Harvard Business School and the departments of Psychology and Sociology.