Larry Downes
Posted in People

Senior Industry and Innovation Fellow
J.D., University of Chicago Law School
Research Interests
- Innovation
- Regulation and Antitrust
- Internet Policy
- Technology and Innovation Policy
About
Larry Downes (new window) is a best-selling author on developing business strategies in an age of accelerating technological disruption. He is the co-author, with Paul F. Nunes, of Big Bang Disruption: Strategy in the Age of Devastating Innovation (Portfolio 2014), now a bestseller. Based on extensive research, the book describes a new kind of disruptive innovation and teaches executives across industries how to adjust their strategies to survive it.
His previous book, The Laws of Disruption: Harnessing the New Forces that Govern Business and Life in the Digital Age, explored the accident-prone intersection of law and innovation.
Downes is the author of the New York Times and Business Week bestseller, Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance, which was named by The Wall Street Journal as one of the five most important books ever published on business and technology.
He writes regularly for Forbes, Harvard Business Review, The Washington Post, and CNET, and is frequently quoted in media stories in both mainstream and trade outlets.
He is currently a research fellow with the Accenture Institute for High Performance.
He has previously held faculty appointments at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Northwestern University School of Law, and the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where he was associate dean of the School of Information.
Selected Publications
- Pivot to the Future, April 2019
- Comments, Federal Communications Commission: In the Matter of Restoring Internet Freedom Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, WC Docket No. 17-108, July 2017
- Responses to Questions for the Record of Larry Downes: “Investing in America’s Broadband Infrastructure: Exploring Ways to Reduce Barriers”, June 2017
- Investing in America’s Broadband Infrastructure: Exploring Ways to Reduce Barriers to Deployment, May 2017
- Responses to Questions for the Record of Larry Downes: “Investing in America’s Broadband Infrastructure: Exploring Ways to Reduce Barriers”, May 2017
- Unlocking Pandora’s Set-Top Box: The FCC Flirts with Disaster, Again, April 2016
- The Losing Case for Special Access Regulation, December 2015
- Assessing the Economic Benefits and Costs of the FCC’s Imposition of Title II Regulation, August 2015
- The Uncertain Future of the Internet, February 2015
- The Evolution of Innovation and the Evolution of Regulation: Emerging Tensions and Emerging Opportunities in Communications, December 2014
- Comments, Federal Communications Commission: Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet, GN Docket No. 14-28, Preserving the Open Internet, GN Docket 09-191, and Framework for Broadband Internet Service, GN Docket 10-127, December 2014
- The AT&T/DIRECTV Merger: The Impact on Competition and Consumers in the Video Market and Beyond, June 2014
- Big Bang Disruption: Strategy in the Age of Devastating Innovation, January 2014