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Olivier Sibony
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- Olivier Sibony is a professor, author and advisor specializing in the quality of strategic thinking and the design of decision processes.
Biography
Meet Olivier Sibony
Olivier Sibony is Professor of Strategy (Education Track) at HEC Paris, where he was awarded the Vernimmen teaching award in 2020. He is also an Associate Fellow of Saïd Business School in Oxford University, and has taught at London Business School, Ecole Polytechnique, ENA, IE Madrid, and other institutions. Previously, he spent 25 years with McKinsey & Company in France and in the U.S., where he was a Senior Partner. There, he was, at various times, a leader of the Global Strategy Practice and of the Consumer Goods & Retail Sector.
Olivier’s latest book, Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment, co-authored with Daniel Kahneman and Cass R. Sunstein, has appeared on multiple bestseller lists worldwide, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Sunday Times lists. His previous book, You’re About to Make a Terrible Mistake!, was awarded the 2019 Manpower Foundation Grand Prize for best management book of the year, and has been translated into 21 languages. He is also the co-author of Cracked It! How To Solve Big Problems and Sell Solutions Like Top Strategy Consultants (with B. Garrette et C. Phelps), and a contributor to the 2019 edition of Strategor, the best-selling French-language strategy textbook. In addition, he has published numerous scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and practitioner-oriented publications (Harvard Business Review, McKinsey Quarterly, MIT Sloan Management Review, California Management Review).
Olivier builds on this research and experience to advise senior leaders on strategic and operational decision-making. He is a frequent keynote speaker and facilitator of top management and board meetings. He also serves as a member of corporate, advisory and investment boards.
Olivier Sibony is a graduate of HEC Paris and holds a Ph. D. from Université Paris-Dauphine. He is a knight in the French Order of the Légion d’Honneur. He is married and the father of two children. He lives in Paris.
Videos
Popular Talks
How Biases Distort Decision Making – and What You Can Do About It
In every decision we make, big and small, cognitive biases set traps for us. The greater the uncertainty, the more difficult it is to resist.
In this interactive session, Olivier Sibony draws on multiple examples to introduce a number of these cognitive biases. He shows how they can derail strategic decisions – even in some of the best companies. And he suggests practical tools and techniques that limit the effects of biases. Designing robust decision-making processes that incorporate such tools is a key driver of performance and an essential role for leaders.
Book: You’re About to Make a Terrible Mistake! (Little, Brown, 2020)
Noise, the other flaw in human judgment
Imagine that two doctors in the same city give different diagnoses to identical patients — or that two judges in the same courthouse give different sentences to people who have committed the same crime. Suppose that when a company is handling customer complaints, the resolution depends on who happens to be handling the particular complaint. Now imagine that the same doctor, the same judge, or company official makes different decisions, depending on whether it is morning or afternoon, or Monday rather than Wednesday. These are examples of noise: variability in judgments that should be identical.
In this talk, Olivier Sibony explains how and why humans are so susceptible to noise in judgment, why it is a large, underappreciated source of error — and how we can measure and reduce noise to improve the quality of our decisions.
Book: Noise, a Flaw in Human Judgment, with Daniel Kahneman and Cass Sunstein (Little Brown, 2021)
A different view of diversity
When asked to explain the stubborn lack of diversity at the top of organizations, many executives have a designated culprit: bias. Diversity training, awarenessbuilding programs and many other initiatives aim at combating biases and stereotypes about women and minorities.
But is this enough? Is this even useful? Building on a thorough review of research and practice, Olivier Sibony calls for challenging a different set of stereotypes: those we hold about leaders. By changing the way they hire, promote, organize and reward, organizations can make better personnel decisions. This results in more diverse top teams… but also, simply, in better ones.
Book: La diversité n’est pas ce que vous croyez, Flammarion, 2025
Between AI and intuition: when (and when not) to trust algorithms
“Big Data”, artificial intelligence and algorithms have become so ubiquitous that they generate serious concerns about their effectiveness, risks, and possible biases. But one question is rarely asked: how good is the alternative, i.e., human judgment?
In this talk, Olivier Sibony reviews what we have learned about human judgment from several decades of “man vs. machine” competitions. The insights he offers will help you decide when you can trust machines, and importantly, how to improve your judgment when you cannot.
Strategic decisions: Dealing with an uncertain world
Every managerial decision entails risk, but for many companies, the current climate of uncertainty is extreme. How to make decisions when you don’t know what tomorrow may bring? What use are plans when the future is so uncertain?
To open up debate on these questions, Olivier Sibony draws on the lessons of behavioral economics and cognitive science, as well as his experience as a strategy consultant familiar with the workings of large organizations.
Book: Cracked It! (with Bernard Garrette and Corey Phelps, Springer, 2018)
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