Department of Management & Entrepreneurship

Burruss Building 312

678.797.2502

chofer@kennesaw.edu

Charles Hofer is the Regents Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship at Kennesaw State University's Coles College of Business. His areas of specialization are Strategic Management, Turnaround Management, and New Enterprise Development. Previously, Dr. Hofer taught at Northwestern, Stanford, Columbia, NYU, and Georgia, as well as in executive development programs throughout the world. He received a B.S. in theoretical physics (summa cum laude) from Lehigh University, an M.S. in applied mathematics from Harvard University, and an M.B.A. in marketing (with distinction) and a D.B.A. in business policy both from the Harvard Business School.

Dr. Hofer has written several books on Strategic Management including Strategy Formulation: Analytic Concepts (1978), Strategic Management: A New View of Business Policy and Planning (1979), Strategic Management: A Casebook in Policy and Planning, (1980 & 84), Future Firms: How America’s High Tech Companies Work (1998), Creating Value Through Skill-Based Strategy and Entrepreneurial Leadership (1999), and Measuring Organizational Performance: Metrics for Entrepreneurship & Strategic management Research (2006). Dr. Hofer has published articles in the Harvard Business Review, the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Review, the Journal of Business Strategy, the Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, the Journal of Economics and Business, the Journal of Private Equity, the American Journal of Small Business, the Journal of Small Business Management, Strategic Planning Management, and the Journal of Management Case Studies. He has also written over 25 business cases, and he is the former Editor of Strategic Planning Management and the founding Associate Editor of the Journal of Business Strategy.

In 2007, Dr. Hofer was named one of the Top 18 Entrepreneurship Professors in the U.S. by Fortune Small Business magazine. In 2003, he was voted the University of Georgia’s MBA Teacher of the Year. In 2001 he won the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teachers given bi-annually by Baylor University. In 2000, he won the United States Association for Small Business & Entrepreneurship (USASBE) National Award for Outstanding Entrepreneurship Education Pedagogy. In 1999, he won the Advocate Award given by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management for Lifetime Contributions to the Development of the Field of Entrepreneurship. In 1998, USASBE selected the University of Georgia’s Ph.D. Program in Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management, which Dr. Hofer designed, the winner of its National Model Program Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education, just as it had chosen Georgia’s MBA program in Entrepreneurship and Small Business the winner of this Award at the Masters level in 1992. In 1994, Dr. Hofer won the Society of Manufacturing Engineers' Sargent Americanism Award for Innovative Work on America's Private Enterprise System. In 1993, he was awarded the University of Georgia's William A. Owens Creative Research Award. In 1992, Dr. Hofer won the International Hall of Fame Entrepreneur’s Award given by the Inventors Clubs of America. He was also named the first USASBE Outstanding Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year. In addition, he won the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management’s first Coleman Entrepreneurship Mentor Award for his contributions to the development of Ph.D. students in the field of Entrepreneurship. In 1991, Dr. Hofer received a Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education from the Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge. In 1989, he received the first Outstanding Contributions Award given by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management.

In 1994, Dr. Hofer was named to the Association of Turnaround Management’s National Faculty with the responsibility for the Management Section of the Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP) Exam. His article “Designing Turnaround Strategies” is one the five most cited papers in the area of Turnaround Management. In 1992, Dr. Hofer’s text, Strategy Formulation: Analytical Concepts, was listed as one of the five most significant textbooks in Strategic Management in J. I. Moore's Writers on Strategy and Strategic Management. In 1985, a survey of the Academy of Management's Business Policy & Planning Division ranked three of his publications among the top 30 "Contributions to Strategic Management" during the previous half century. In 1984, a similar survey of the top 20 "Classics of Business Policy" ranked his 1975 article, "Toward a Contingency Theory of Business Strategy," the third most important article in the history of the field. In 1984, the Good Book Guide for Business, which was compiled by the senior editors of the Economist, listed two of Dr. Hofer’s books among the 23 "best and most original contributions to understanding senior management's role in strategy formulation and implementation." In addition, Dr. Hofer edited two of the other 21 books on this list.

Dr. Hofer has received various other academic honors including Phi Eta Sigma, Pi Mu Epsilon, Tau Beta Pi, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Iota Epsilon, and Beta Gamma Sigma. He is a past President of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, a past Chair of the Business Policy and Strategy Division of the Academy of Management, and a past Track Chair in Strategic Management for the Decision Sciences Institute. He is also a founding member of the Strategic Management Society. Dr. Hofer has consulted with many different organizations, including AT&T, Borg-Warner, the Chicago Lung Association, Exxon, Ford, General Electric, the Illinois Masonic Medical Center, the R. H. Nichols Company Ltd., Repeat Performers, Inc., Sangamon State University, Studio Ambrosetti, and Wells Fargo Security Services. He has given over 100 presentations to professional societies and organizations. He was formerly Vice President of Marketing of the Power Ski Corporation and Executive Vice President of the Chicago Strategy Group, and is currently the President of the Strategic Management Group, an Atlanta-based consulting company specializing in strategy and entrepreneurship issues.