Bio
Robert Siegel is a Lecturer in Management and has taught nine different courses in his time at Stanford. He has authored over 115 cases and led primary research 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 Bidra Innovation Ventures, Avochato and Findmine, and led investments in 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), 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 Systems Leader: Mastering the Cross-Pressures That Make or Break Today’s Companies, and The Brains and Brawn Company: How Leading Organizations Blend the Best of Digital and Physical. He has coauthored several articles for the Harvard Business Review and California Management Review, and is a frequent contributor to Fortune, TechCrunch, VentureBeat and Forbes.
He was previously General Manager of the video and software solutions division for GE Security. 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.
He 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.
Research Interests
- Systems Leadership
- Corporate and Entrepreneurial Innovation
- Financial Management for Entrepreneurs
- Corporations, Finance and Governance in the Global Economy
- Venture Capital
- Product Management
Stanford GSB Affiliations
Stanford University Affiliations
- Stanford Associates Stanford University
Academic Degrees
- MBA, Stanford GSB, 1994
- BA, University of California, Berkeley, 1989
Academic Appointments
- Lecturer, Stanford GSB, 2011-present
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
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
Research Statement
Journal Articles
Books
Degree Courses
Non-Degree Courses
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.