Biography
 Paul Strassmann President, The Information Economics Press www.strassmann.com pstrassmann@strassmann.com 203-966-5505 |
PAUL A. STRASSMANN's career includes service as information systems executive (1956-1978; 1990-to date), vice-president of strategic planning for office automation (1978-1985), and information systems consultant (1986-1990). Mr. Strassmann is president of The Information Economics Press. He continues to teach as adjunct Professor, School of Information Warfare, the National Defense University in Washington and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Strassmann is acting as Senior Advisor to the Science Applications International Corporation, Associate of the Butler Group, a U.K. consultancy and on the Board of Visitors, School of Information Studies at the Syracuse University. He is on the Boards of Directors of: McCabe Associates, Meta Software, RevBox, the InSite corporations as well as the CIO Academy. His monthly articles appear in the Computerworld, searchSecurity.com and in the Knowledge Management magazines. Strassmann holds Registered U.S. Trademarks for Return-on-Management®, R-O-M®; Information Productivity® and Knowledge Capital®. After serving as an advisor to the Deputy Secretary of Defense since 1990 he was appointed in 1991 to a newly created position of Director of Defense Information reporting to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence. He was responsible for organizing and managing the corporate information management (CIM) program across the Department of Defense that included a major cost reduction and business re-engineering program of the defense information infrastructure. Strassmann had policy oversight for Defense Department's information technology expenditures. He is a 1993 recipient of the Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service. Strassmann joined Xerox in 1969 as director of administration and information systems with worldwide responsibility for all internal Xerox computer activities. From 1972 to 1976 he served as founder and general manager of its Information Services Division which included corporate computer operations, telecommunication, administrative services, software development and management consulting services. Introduced major innovations in global telecommunication management. From 1976 to 1978 he was corporate director responsible for worldwide computer, telecommunications and administrative functions. He was key contributor to shaping business Xerox strategy for office automation and developed new methods for evaluating the productivity of computer investments. Until his retirement from Xerox he served as vice president of strategic planning for the Information Products Group, with responsibility for strategic investments, acquisitions and product plans involving the corporation's worldwide electronic businesses. After his retirement he became author, lecturer and consultant to firms such as AT&T, Citicorp, Digital Equipment, General Electric, General Motors, IBM, Shell Oil, Sun Microsystems, Texas Instruments as well as visiting professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the University of Connecticut and the Imperial College, in London, England. His public involvement includes presentations to the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and the British House of Commons. Prior to joining Xerox Strassmann held the job of Corporate Information Officer for the General Foods Corporation and afterwards for the Kraft Corporation from 1960 through 1969. He started working with computers in 1954 when he designed a method for scheduling toll collection personnel on the basis of punch card toll receipts. He earned an engineering degree from the Cooper Union, New York, and a master's degree in industrial management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. He is author of over 200 articles on information management and information worker productivity. His 1985 book Information Payoff-The Transformation of Work in the Electronic Age has attracted worldwide attention and was translated into a number of languages. His 1990 book, The Business Value of Computers, now translated into Japanese, covers research on the relation between information technology and profitability of firms. His 1993 book, The Politics of Information Management offers guidelines on organization of the information function for greatest effectiveness. A companion volume, The Irreverent Dictionary of Information Politics reflects on the inconsistencies in information management practices. His 1997 book, The Squandered Computer, offers specific recommendations on how to obtain better value from investments in information technologies and was Amazon.com #1 best selling book on information management in 1998. His latest book is on Information Productivity - Assessing the Information Management Costs of U.S. Industrial Corporations includes an information productivity ranking of 1,585 U.S. firms. Strassmann has is now converting his publishing to web-based distribution of research studies. The first five studies are now appearing on http://www.strassmann.com/iep/digital./ Strassmann was chairman of the committee on information workers for the White House conference on productivity and served on the Department of Defense Federal Advisory Board for Information Management, the Army Science Board and the Defense Science Board. He is life member of the Data Processing Management Association, fellow of the British Computer Society, and senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He authored the code of conduct for data processing professionals; was recipient of the 1992 Award for Achievement by the Association for Federal Information Resource Management; the 1992 International Industry Award for advancing the adoption of Open Systems and the 1996 Excellence Award for Business Engineering. In 1997 he was named as one of the twelve most influential Chief Information Officers of the last decade by the CIO magazine. In 2000 he was cited by the Asst. Secretary of Defense of Command, Control and Intelligence for his pioneering work as one of the key Defense executives responsible for advancing the cause of U.S. information superiority. |