Robert E. Siegel

Robert E. Siegel
Lecturer

Robert E. Siegel

Lecturer in Management

Research Statement

Robert Siegel researches strategy and innovation in both large and small companies, as well as the leadership opportunities and challenges that 21st century technological change brings to these organizations. Robert also teaches financial management for entrepreneurs over the life-cycle of growing companies. Additionally, he works on issues surrounding corporations, finance, and governance in global contexts and settings.

Research Interests

  • Systems Leadership
  • Corporate and Entrepreneurial Innovation
  • Financial Management for Entrepreneurs
  • Corporations, Finance and Governance in the Global Economy
  • Venture Capital
  • Product Management

Bio

Robert Siegel is a Lecturer in Management and has taught nine different courses in his time at Stanford. He has led primary research and written cases on Google, Charles Schwab, Daimler, AB InBev, Box, Stripe, Target, AngelList, 23andMe, C3.ai, Majid Al Futtaim, Tableau, PayPal, Autodesk, Minted, Axel Springer, and Michelin, amongst others.

He is also a Venture Partner at Piva Capital and a General Partner at XSeed Capital. He sits on the Board of Directors of Luum, Avochato, and Findmine. He led investments in Sparta Science, Zooz (acquired by PayU of Naspers), Hive, Lex Machina (acquired by LexisNexis of the RELX Group), CirroSecure (acquired by Palo Alto Networks), Nova Credit, The League (acquired by Match Group), Teapot (acquired by Stripe), Brewbird, Pixlee TurnTo (acquired by Emplifi), and SIPX (acquired by ProQuest).

Robert is a Member of the Supervisory Board of HERE Technologies, and was a Member of the company’s Industry Advisory Board from 2017 - 2022. He is the Chairman of the Strategic Advisory Board for TTTech Computertechnik AG in Vienna, Austria. He is a Member of the Industry Advisory Board for Tulco and was on the board of SmartDrive Systems for 14 years (acquired by Omnitracs). He is the Co-President Emeritus of Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs, an alumni association that fosters relationships to strengthen the Stanford startup community.

Robert is the author of The Brains and Brawn Company: How Leading Organizations Blend the Best of Digital and Physical, has coauthored several articles for the Harvard Business Review and California Management Review, and is a frequent contributor to Fortune, TechCrunch, VentureBeat and Forbes.

Robert was previously General Manager of the video and software solutions division for GE Security, with annual revenues of $350 million. He was also Executive Vice President of Pixim, Inc., a fabless semiconductor firm specializing in image sensors and processors (acquired by Sony). Before Pixim, Robert was Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Weave Innovations Inc. (acquired by Kodak), a network services developer that invented the world’s first digital picture frame, and delivered photos and other digital media to PCs and internet / mobile devices.

Robert served in various management roles at Intel Corporation, including an executive position on their corporate business development team, in which he invested capital in startups that were strategically aligned with Intel’s vision.

Robert is the co-inventor of four patents and served as lead researcher for Andy Grove’s best-selling book, Only the Paranoid Survive.

Robert holds a BA from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is married with three grown children.

Academic Degrees

  • MBA, Stanford GSB, 1994
  • BA, University of California, Berkeley, 1989

Academic Appointments

  • Lecturer, Stanford GSB, 2011-present

Professional Experience

  • Venture Partner, Piva, 2019-Current
  • General Partner, XSeed Capital, 2008-Current
  • General Manager, Video Software and Solutions, GE Security, 2004-2007
  • Executive Vice President, Pixim, Inc., 2001-2004
  • CEO and Co-Founder, Weave Innovations, Inc., 1998-2001
  • Senior Manager, Desktop Products Group and Corporate Business Development, Intel Corporation, 1994-1998

Awards and Honors

  • Case Centre Award Entrepreneurship Category Winner - AB InBev: Brewing an Innovation Strategy (2019)
  • Case Centre Award Entrepreneurship Category Winner - Axel Springer in 2014: Strategic Leadership of the Digital Media Transformation (2017)
  • MBA Class of 1973 Lecturer, 2016-2017

Publications

Journal Articles

Robert E. Siegel, Aaron Levie, Maxwell Wessel
Harvard Business Review
May 4, 2017
Robert E. Siegel, Aaron Levie, Maxwell Wessel
Harvard Business Review
November 2016 Pages 68-74
Robert A. Burgelman, Robert E. Siegel
California Management Review
2008 Vol. 50 Issue 3 Pages 140-167
Robert A. Burgelman, Robert E. Siegel
California Management Review
2007 Vol. 49 Issue 3 Pages 6-26

Teaching

Degree Courses

Executive Education & Other Non-Degree Programs

Learn to lead with confidence in this rigorous, general management program for executives on the verge of achieving even greater things.
Discover business growth strategies and build a stronger company designed to sustain progress, scale management, and facilitate market expansion.
Experience Stanford business and medicine in a health care leadership program featuring design thinking and personal leadership skill development.
Develop strategic frameworks, customer empathy, and communication and leadership skills to help you move from product management to the C-suite.
Leverage diverse research, proven methodologies, and design thinking for change management in this collaboration between Stanford and Harvard.
Gain a competitive advantage using Silicon Valley models and mindsets to recruit, retain, and inspire people for performance and growth.
Make the business case for sustainability with strategic and financial frameworks, personal leadership skills, and a deeper knowledge of today’s sustainability landscape.

Other Teaching

Programs and Non-Degree Courses

For over 60 years, global business leaders have come to the Stanford Executive Program to discover the innovative models and mindsets that are shaping the future of modern leadership and business.

Agile. Creative. Innovative. And yes, strategic, too. The demands on today’s chief operating officers have expanded far beyond optimizing resources and efficiencies. Successful COOs must also encourage and implement change in their organizations and create a culture that accelerates rather than hinders innovation. The Emerging COO: Driving Innovation and Operational Excellence will give you the strategies and leadership skills to innovate, collaborate, and execute.

Develop best practices and insights to generate and lead innovation in your organization; then put theory into practice with real-world projects. Innovation isn’t just for startups. In fact, established organizations have even greater opportunities to innovate — from the incremental to the truly transformational.

We are moving from an industrial economy to a digital one that blends both physical and digital solutions. Can mature organizations survive using the same systems that made them successful, or do those very systems put them at risk? Startups, on the other hand, are not limited by legacy organizational baggage, but need to be smart about how they approach non-technical industries. This course uses case studies to explore how the world’s best startups are taking on the world’s biggest companies, and how those large companies are adapting to survive. Ensure that your company isn’t overtaken by an emerging startup by learning how to prepare for this shifting landscape.

Can organizations with an industrial business model succeed in the digital landscape? Can companies with digital foundations be successful in a world of making physical products? This course examines a new generation of leaders as they create transformational change in the world’s largest and oldest companies as well as in rising upstarts. Using case studies and systems thinking, you’ll redefine the way you see organizations, resources, and people. Ensure that you’re poised to effectively lead your team or organization through digital transformation by mastering techniques of systems leadership.

Stanford Case Studies

Anne Beyer, Robert Siegel, Alessia Morales
2023
Anne Beyer, Robert Siegel, Patrick Robinson
2023
Robert E. Siegel, Lucy Montgomery
2023
Robert Siegel, Anne Beyer, Andrew Freiman
2023
Robert Siegel, Dominic Mirabile
2022
Anne Beyer, Robert Siegel, Dominic Mirabile
2022
Anne Beyer, Robert E Siegel, Donna Bebb
2022
Anne Beyer, Robert E. Siegel, Amadeus Orleans
2022
Anne Beyer, Robert Siegel, Gelila Bekele
2022
Anne Beyer, Robert Siegel, Gelila Bekele
2022
Amir Goldberg, Robert Siegel, Dominic Mirabile
2022
Anne Beyer, Robert Siegel, Gelila Bekele
2022
Robert Siegel, Jack Strabo
2021
Robert Siegel, Lucy Montgomery
2021
E752
Robert Siegel, Imogen Mansfield
2021
Robert Siegel, Jack Strabo
2021
Robert Siegel, Jeffrey Conn
2020
William Barnett, Robert Siegel, Laila AlJasem
2020
Robert Siegel, Mitchel Scott
2020
Robert Siegel, Jack Strabo
2020
Robert Siegel, Patrick Robinson
2019
Shai Bernstein, Robert E. Siegel, Joseph N. Golden
2019
Robert E. Siegel, Blake Kavanaugh
2019
Robert E. Siegel, Amadeus Orleans
2019
Robert E. Siegel, Amadeus Orleans
2019
Robert Siegel, Mitchel Scott
2019
Robert Siegel, Jocelyn Hornblower
2019
Robert E. Siegel, Amadeus Orleans
2019
Robert E. Siegel, Robert A. Burgelman, Jeffrey Conn
2018
Robert E. Siegel, Julie Makinen
2018
Robert Siegel, Robert Burgelman, Cameron Lehman
2018
Robert Siegel, Peter Seibert
2018
Robert Siegel, Cameron Lehman
2018
Robert Siegel, Peter Seibert
2018
Robert Burgelman, Robert Siegel, Julie Makinen
2018
E624
Robert Siegel, Sara Rosenthal
2017
Robert E. Siegel, Amadeus Orleans
2017
Robert Siegel, Julie Makinen
2017
Robert E. Siegel, Amadeus Orleans
2017
Robert Siegel, Matt Saucedo
2017
E622 (A)
Robert Siegel, Matt Saucedo
2017
E622 (B)
Robert Siegel, Matt Saucedo
2017
Robert Siegel, Tim Hsia, Matt Saucedo
2017
Robert Siegel, Sylvia Kuyel
2017
SM281
Robert Siegel, Julie Makinen
2017
E630
Robert Siegel, Ryan Kissick
2017
Amir Goldberg, Robert Siegel, Matt Saucedo
2017
Robert Siegel, Peter Seibert
2016
Robert A. Burgelman, Robert Siegel, Ryan Kissick
2016
Robert Siegel, Sara Rosenthal
2016
Robert E. Siegel, Jessica Morgan
2016
Robert Siegel, Ryan Kissick
2016
Robert Siegel, Matthew Saucedo
2016
E604
Robert E Siegel, Sara Rosenthal
2016
Robert Siegel, Ryan Kissick
2016
Robert Siegel, Robert Burgelman, Shalie Gaskill
2015
E562
Robert Siegel, Yin Li
2015
Robert Siegel, Jackie Bello
2015
Robert Siegel, Robert Burgelman, Michael Seltzer
2015
Robert Siegel, Robert Burgelman, Tim Hsia
2015
Robert Siegel, Mark Leslie, Matthew Saucedo
2015
Robert Burgelman, Robert Siegel, Henry Lippincott
2015
Robert Siegel, Jessica Morgan
2015
E571A
Robert Siegel, Sara Rosenthal
2015
E571B
Robert Siegel, Sara Rosenthal
2015
Robert Siegel, Robert Burgelman, Arla Xhaxho
2015
Robert Siegel, Yin Li
2014
Robert Siegel, Yin Li
2014
Robert A. Burgelman, Robert E. Siegel, Jason Luther
2014
Robert Burgelman, Robert Siegel, Rosy Lee
2014
Robert Siegel, Robet Burgelman, Sylvia Kuyel
2014
Robert Burgelman, Robert Siegel, Sara Rosenthal
2014
Robert Siegel, Yin Li
2014
Robert Burgelman, Robert Siegel, Shalie Gaskill
2013
Robert A. Burgelman, Robert Eric Siegel, Morgan Hallmon
2013
Robert A. Burgelman, Robert Eric Siegel, Ibrahim Elbouchikhi, Jonathan Karmel, Alan Chiu
2013
Robert Siegel, Austin Kiessig
2013
Robert Siegel, Austin Kiessig
2013
Robert Siegel
2013
SM182B
Robert A. Burgelman, Robert Eric Siegel, Maalika Manoharan
2013
Robert Burgelman, Robert Siegel, Scott Nolan
2012
Robert A. Burgelman, Robert E. Siegel, Rosy Lee
2012
Robert A Burgelman, Robert E Siegel, Rosy Lee
2012
Robert A Burgelman, Robert E Siegel, Tomas Uribe
2012
Robert A. Burgelman, Robert Eric Siegel, Morgan Hallmon
2010
Robert Burgelman, Lyn Denend, Robert Siegel
2010
Robert Burgelman, Lyn Denend, Robert Siegel
2010
Robert Burgelman, Lyn Denend, Robert Siegel
2006
Robert Burgelman, Lyn Denend, Robert Siegel
2005
Adam Block, Robert Burgelman, Robert Siegel
2005
Adam Block, Robert Burgelman, Robert Siegel
2005
Robert Burgelman, Lyn Denend, Robert Siegel
2004

Stanford University Affiliations

In the Media

Insights by Stanford Business

October 27, 2022
Five lessons in five minutes: Anat Admati and Robert E. Siegel, on leaders’ roles in creating trustworthy institutions and markets.
July 07, 2022
The latest books from Stanford GSB faculty and lecturers.
June 09, 2022
Peloton VP shares why defining purpose, whether for a brand or for yourself, is the jumping-off point for business.
December 15, 2021
Five lessons in five minutes from Stanford GSB professors and lecturers.
September 09, 2021
Members of the Stanford GSB faculty recommend some of their favorite programs.
August 05, 2021
In this podcast episode, we learn how communication is critical for every function inside of an organization.
May 04, 2021
Five lessons in five minutes: lecturer Robert E. Siegel teaches you how to survive disruption.
March 19, 2021
An interview with Zoom’s CEO. A crisis-leadership playbook. A podcast on virtual presentations. And a word on how to close shop gracefully.
June 02, 2020
How to shutter a business when the pandemic forces closure.
December 28, 2016
Take these life lessons to heart and reset your thinking for the new year.
December 15, 2015
Which new tech opportunities have Silicon Valley buzzing? Six insiders tell the rest of us what they think the future holds.
August 07, 2015
The best company culture is not where everyone gets a hug.

School News

December 06, 2022
Articles, videos, and podcasts that capture great teaching and memorable lessons.
April 25, 2022
A new course pushes students (and instructors and guests) to question their assumptions and confront real-world challenges.
April 14, 2021
How the Stanford GSB campus and community responded to the pandemic — as told through images.
January 13, 2020
This Stanford GSB course attracts CEOs from some of the world’s biggest corporations, who share how they’re navigating — or creating — digital disruption.
February 08, 2016
More than 150 unique elective courses offered this year; offerings continually refreshed with new perspectives, lecturers, and ideas.