Who is the Tenacious Tortoise?

Robert S. Gold brings over three decades of professional experience to his role as founder and thought leader of Tenacious Tortoise, LLC.

In thirty years of executive-level management consulting, Bob has advised and enabled such clients as Abbott, Allstate, American Express, Anheuser Busch, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, British Petroleum, Canadian Blood Services, Caterpillar, DaimlerChrysler, Disney, EDS, Eli Lilly, ExxonMobil, FBI, Ford, Genentech, Hallmark, IBM, Intel, Lockheed Martin, Morgan Stanley, Motorola, Panasonic, Petro-Canada, Sabre, T. Rowe Price, Texas Instruments, U.S. Treasury, and many others in such disciplines as:

  • strategic planning, execution, alignment, and communications
  • business and technology performance improvement
  • IT strategic alignment and management
  • business and technology continuity planning

Previously, Bob was Vice President and Practice Leader for Strategic Information Technology Management with Balanced Scorecard Collaborative, working directly with Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, leading authors of the Balanced Scorecard discipline for strategic management. He was also practice leader with Compass America, part of the international Compass Group, specializing in measurement-driven performance improvement in information technology organizations.

Bob began his management consulting career with IBM’s Systems Integration Division in 1989. He earlier held technology management positions with Tribune Company, Time Incorporated, and Washington National Insurance Company.

As originator of the concept of Strategy-Focused Information Technology, Bob has written extensively for Balanced Scorecard Report, and contributed to Kaplan and Norton’s Strategy Maps and Alignment, all published by Harvard Business School. He has written for and been cited in such industry publications as CIO Insight, Baseline, Computerworld, Enterprise Systems Journal, and many others. He has spoken at management and technology conferences and seminars sponsored by Balanced Scorecard Collaborative, Information Technology Financial Management Association, CFO Magazine, Babson College, IHRIM, ISACA, CMG, TDWI, IQPC, CMG, AFCOM, and many others.

Bob earned his MBA (with distinction) in Management Strategy and Organization Behavior at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and earned his BS (with highest distinction) in Organization Behavior, also from Northwestern. He lives with his family outside Chicago, and has a second home in Key West, Florida.