Driven largely by a restlessness to advance the state of the art in my field and an annoyance with armchair advice and junk science, I lead and collaborate on research projects focused on:
The psychology of startup teams
Martin created Google’s Effective Founders Project, a global research program using people analytics to understand what makes the best startup founders succeed. Other topics: the challenges of first-time CEOs, the risks of obsessive passion, and founder confidence.
Revolutionary tech in organizations
How AI and Quantum Computing will shape organizational life in ways we don’t yet see, tech optimism, and the utopian impulse behind startups tackling social and ecological challenges.
Organization design of innovators
Scaling challenges of startups, the org designs of the world’s most innovative research labs, and post-merger acquisition in tech.
Research collaborations
Does Leadership Shape the Performance Trajectories of Early-Stage Startups?
With Wharton’s Valentina Assenova and Ndubuisi Ugwuanyi, we find that startups with more effective leaders as evaluated by their co-founders, employees, investors, and advisory board members achieved higher revenue, innovation, funding, scaling, and longevity.
Member of the board of the Organizational Design Community
An international community of scholars, executives, and organizations dedicated to advancing the theory and practice of organization design founded by luminaries in the field, including Jay R. Galbraith, Richard M. Burton (Duke University), Phanish Puranam (INSEAD), Charles Snow (Penn State University).
Teaching
Martin lectures in some of the world’s most inspiring MBA and Engineering classrooms. His primary affiliation is with Stanford University, where we lectures on entrepreneurship, org culture, org analytics, and the impact of AI in organizational life. He co-teaches a course on Designing Org Culture with Kursat Ozenc, PhD in the d.school, and frequently guest lectures in the Graduate School of Business on a cutting-edge course The Analytics of Org Design.
Guest lectures
Stanford University
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Wharton
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Strategy Implementation with Jason Greenberg
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Corporate Development: Mergers & Acquisitions with Paul Nary
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Entrepreneurship with J. Daniel Kim
INSEAD
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Org 2.0: The Analytics of Org Design with Phanish Puranam
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Organizing for the Future with Phanish Puranam and Victoria Sevcenko
London Business School
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People Analytics with Isabel Fernandez-Mateo
Academic Conferences
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2021 Academy of Management Annual Meeting, industry panel speaker on the challenges and promise of hybrid work
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2022 Org Design Community Annual Conference on novel ways of organizing: Distributed Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), what is hype and what is here to stay? with Lisa Wocken and Ying-Ying Hsieh
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2023 Sumantra Ghoshal Strategy Conference, panel on the impact of generative AI on organizing work, with Phanish Puranam
Johns Hopkins University
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Strategic Management with Richard Smith
Singapore Management University
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Management Practicum with Richard R. Smith
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Human Capital Leadership with Richard R. Smith
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Org Behavior with Don Ferrin
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Leading in a Global Environment with Don Ferrin
Tsinghua University
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Schwarzman Scholars course on Leadership in Business with Todd Henshaw
Cambridge Judge Business School
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Strategic Management with Shahzad Ansari and Kamal Munir
University of Michigan Ross School of Business
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Mergers, Acquisitions and Corporate Development with Brian Wu
University of Asia and the Pacific
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Leadership in Tech, undergraduate course designed and taught for the School of Communication