About
Steve Sashihara is a consultant and trailblazer in optimization, business process improvement, and tech-powered innovation.
Steve is the president and CEO of Princeton Consultants, www.princeton.com, which he founded in 1981 after graduating from Princeton University. Blending AI, software development and management consulting to help executives achieve transformational improvement, the firm has successfully delivered projects to a wide range of industry leaders, as well as organizations and agencies such as the US Census Bureau, with whom Steve became an INFORMS Edelman Laureate in 2022 for helping optimize the 2020 US Census.
Steve is a frequent guest speaker on the subjects of optimization, digital disruption, and innovation at industry and academic events.
“Optimization can be an intimidating word, at least for business executives. I wanted to explain in language they could understand—and that language begins with the kind of bottom-line results you can achieve—what Optimization is, what it uniquely adds to an organization’s decision-making capability, and how they can go about exploiting its potential.”
“How can executives improve their game using Optimization to make decisions? Since I write for an executive audience, my focus is on relating the experiences of a forward- thinking breed of executives who have begun to distance their companies from competitors by deploying Optimization to make complex judgments about the best way to deploy assets.”
“You have to understand that Optimization is not merely a technology, but a set of principles and a way of thinking about the key issues of the business—the way assets are managed, the way problems get solved and decisions made, the way data is put to use, and the way human resources are deployed. There’s no greater reward than watching executives experience, for the first time, the lightning bolt of results that come from Optimization. But equally satisfying is watching the change in culture that takes place. Optimizing organizations put highest value on staking out the best solutions to strategic and operational challenges. No question, both these keep me going!”
One of [Steve Sashihara's] most interesting arguments is that a great deal of the effort spent on information gathering and analysis is wasted when it's used to feed business intelligence systems that produce reports that ultimately wind up being fed into spreadsheet and PowerPoint slides."
- David Carr, Forbes.com
" The Optimization Edge is a powerful book that will change the way organizations make decisions and manage their assets."
- Frances Hesselbein, President and CEO, Leader to Leader Institute, Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom
" At UPS, the 'optimization edge' has given us a competitive advantage. It enables us to solve problems of great complexity seamlessly and with increased velocity, resulting in smarter decisions and ultimately bringing greater value to our customers."
- Chuck Holland, Vice President of Industrial Engineering, UPS