---
id: "entity-robert-handfield"
type: "entity"
source_timestamps: ["Byline", "¶3", "Author Bio"]
tags: ["author", "researcher"]
related: ["entity-nc-state-university"]
entityType: "person"
canonicalName: "Robert Handfield"
aliases: ["Rob Handfield"]
canonical_url: "https://poole.ncsu.edu/people/rhandfi/"
sources: ["tail1"]
isSpeakerEntity: true
---
## Segment 1 — tail1

## Article 107 — a107

# Robert Handfield

**Robert Handfield** is the author of the source article. He is the Bank of America Distinguished Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management and executive director of the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative at [[entity-nc-state-university]]'s Poole College of Management.

**Role in the source:** primary author and analytical voice. He frames the thesis (data foundation before AI), draws the general lessons from Lenovo's experience, and supplies the contrarian argument. He is the academic lens; [[entity-jack-fiedler]] supplies the practitioner's operational detail.

**Attributed contributions to this vault:**
- [[quote-broken-intelligence]] — *"Build intelligence on a broken data foundation and you get broken intelligence, every single time."*
- The framing behind [[claim-ai-failure-is-data-failure]], [[claim-ai-adoption-collapses-18-months]], and [[claim-off-the-shelf-ai-inadequate]].
- The four action items and three contrarian insights that generalize the Lenovo case.

> **Enrichment note:** Canonical profile — https://poole.ncsu.edu/people/rhandfi/ (Bank of America Distinguished Professor; Executive Director, Supply Chain Resource Cooperative, NC State).