Stephen D. Clement

Dr. Stephen D. Clement is co-author of It's All About Work, Organizing Your Company To Get Work Done and is the founder and president of Organizational Design Inc.

Dr. Clement graduated from the United States Military Academy and was commissioned as an Artillery officer in 1965. As a Ranger in Vietnam he learned, first hand, the unique importance of battlefield leadership. Upon his return to the United States he began studies at Purdue University, earning a MS in Industrial Relations and a Ph.D. in Organizational Communication. Following graduate school, he then began his journey as an organizational and leadership expert in the U.S. Army, at the United Stated Military Academy at West Point. There, Dr. Clement taught courses on leadership and management and became the Director of Research within the Leadership Department. Over the course of his distinguished military career, Dr. Clement designed and developed the U.S. Army's leadership development programs, many tenets of which, even today, serve as leadership doctrine for Army Soldiers and Officers worldwide. Towards the latter part of his military career, Dr. Clement pioneered in identifying the underlying set of organizational principles that functioned as the theoretical base under-pinning the Army's leadership programs. In short, he realized leadership does not occur in a vacuum, but rather in a social setting (i.e., organizational structure and hierarchy).

While developing the Army's leadership programs, Dr. Clement came to meet Dr. Elliot Jaques. Dr. Jacques' background in human nature and social organizations coupled with Dr. Clement's background in leadership and military organizations led to a dynamic partnership. Together, their work aroused the interest of the CEO of a large mining company in Australia, CRA. In 1985, Dr. Clement retired from the United States Army after 20 years of service to found Organizational Design, Inc. ODI's original charter was to pursue organizational design work through a partnership with Dr. Jaques both at CRA and the US Army. Sir Roderick Carnegie, then CEO of CRA Australia, initiated a full scale implementation and subsequent total reorganization of CRA based on the work of Dr. Clement and Dr. Jacques. This work led to the authoring of two books: Requisite Organization published in 1989 in which Dr. Clement was a significant contributor, followed by Executive Leadership published in 1991 in which Dr. Clement and Dr. Jaques were co-authors. These two long-term field projects (U.S. Army and CRA) and these two books (Requisite Organization and Executive Leadership) form the basis of Organizational Design's approach to organizations.

In subsequent years, this set of basic organizational design principles has proven to be central in achieving dramatic increases in the efficiency and effectiveness of contemporary business and government organizations. As a consultant to industry and government, Dr. Clement specializes in the application of the design principles outlined in his latest book (It's All About Work) to the organization of work, including key work related processes and the underlying leadership and management skills required to perform such work effectively. Substantial improvements in productive effectiveness have occurred as a direct result of Dr. Clement's organizational interventions (e.g., 30% cost reductions, 6% annual productivity increases over a ten year period, etc.).

Dr. Clement continues to provide his expertise to the Fortune 500 organizations, as well as the U.S. Army. With more than 50 years of experience in leadership and management, in both government and corporate arenas, Dr. Clement provides a unique and time-tested vision as to how an organization should be structured around the work. He has been instrumental in transforming many organizations to more effectively meet the needs of a rapidly changing economic and warfigthting environment.

Dr. Clement's awards and decorations include several battlefield medals to include e.g., The Soldiers Medal, The Bronze Star Medal, The Meritorious Service Medal, The Air Medal, The Army Commendation Medal for Heroism as well as several distinguished service awards e.g., the Legion of Merit, Military Medical Merit and in 2007, the United States Secretary of the Army Public Service Award.

Dr. Clement has been a longtime member of the Army Science Board (ASB) and former chair of the Innovation Panel for the ASB.