Robert Newton Anthony (September 6, 1916 – December 1, 2006) was an American organizational theorist, and professor of management control at Harvard Business School, known for his work in the field of management control systems.
In 1942 he became research assistant to Ross G. Walker (1891-1970), Harvard Professor of Business Administration since 1936.
[3] Harvard Business School professor Regina Herzlinger explained about the impact of Anthony's work in the 2006 obituary in the Harvard Gazette: And furthermore: And Harvard accounting professor Charles Christenson added: Robert N. Anthony was the one who said that "Accounting principles should be based on the premise that the most important characteristics of financial information is its usefulness for decision making."
In 1965 Anthony served as comptroller at the US Department of Defense under Robert S. McNamara, where he supervised the quality of accounting and financial reporting of the organization.
Charles Christenson explained: Anthony wrote or had a role in writing 27 books on accounting and management control.