Michael A. Cusumano specializes in strategy and technology management in the computer software industry, as well as automobiles and consumer electronics. Cusumano is the author of six books, including Microsoft Secrets (1995), and Platform Leadership: How Intel, Microsoft, and Cisco Drive Industry Innovation (2002). He has also served as editor-in-chief and chairman of the MIT Sloan Management Review and has written for The Wall Street Journal, Computerworld, and The Washington Post. He has consulted for major companies around the world, and is a director of Infinium Software (ERP applications) and Investhink, Ltd. (financial services content and integration software), and an advisor to various companies including NetNumina Solutions (e-business software), firstRain (wireless and web services software), and H-5 Technologies (digital search technology). His book, "The Business of Software" is published by the Free Press.

He received a B.A. from Princeton in 1976 and a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1984. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Production and Operations Management at the Harvard Business School during 1984-86. He is fluent in Japanese and has lived and worked in Japan for seven years. He received two Fulbright Fellowships and a Japan Foundation Fellowship to study at Tokyo University.