Zeynep Ton is a Professor of the Practice in the Operations Management group at the MIT Sloan School of Management and President of the nonprofit Good Jobs Institute. Before joining MIT Sloan, she spent seven years on the faculty at Harvard Business School.
Zeynep’s research explores how organizations can design and manage their operations in ways that satisfy employees, customers, and investors simultaneously.
In 2014, she published her groundbreaking book:
The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits
Drawing on 15 years of research, the book shows that combining investment in employees with specific operational choices can increase employee productivity, contribution, and motivation — while also delivering exceptional service and strong financial performance.
Following the release of The Good Jobs Strategy, retail leaders began reaching out to Zeynep for guidance on implementing the strategy in their organizations. In response, she co-founded the Good Jobs Institute to support companies through assessments, workshops, and long-term partnerships.
Zeynep’s research has been published in prestigious journals, including:
- Harvard Business Review
- California Management Review
- Organization Science
She has authored several Harvard Business School cases and her work has been widely featured in the media, including:
- The Atlantic
- The New Yorker
- The Washington Post
- The New York Times
- PBS
- NPR
She teaches MBA and executive education courses in operations management and has received multiple awards for excellence in teaching at both HBS and MIT Sloan.
Zeynep was named one of the World’s 40 Best Business School Professors Under the Age of 40 by Poets & Quants and was featured by CNNMoney as one of eight rising business school professors.
Zeynep lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and four children. A native of Turkey, she first came to the U.S. on a volleyball scholarship to Pennsylvania State University, where she earned her B.S. in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. She later received her D.B.A. from Harvard Business School.