Dr. Rajesh K Pillania is rated and awarded the Top Professor of Strategy in India by ASSOCHAM and Education Post. He is ranked jointly number one in average research productivity among management faculty (including IIMs/IITs) in India for research output from 1968 to 2014 [By Prof Ramdhar Singh of IIM Banglore and others in 2015 which was published in a reputed international journal titled Omega in 2017]. He is on the advisory board of many esteemed international research journals¸ professional bodies and conferences consisting of leading international academicians¸ industry leaders and policy makers.
He is passionate about strategy and his areas of expertise are strategy, innovation strategy, strategy in India, global strategy, demystifying strategy, demystifying innovation, strategic humour, happiness strategy and humour. His research is focused on two broad areas. First one is on the frontiers of strategic management and second one is on democratizing strategy. For frontiers of strategic management, he is involved with a number of esteemed international research journals and has written more than 75 research papers and 3 books. For democratizing strategy, he has published 5 innovative humourous books which are available on Amazon, offers strategy workshops, and writes on strategy in popular media such as Times of India and The Economic Times, etc. His work is used by practitioners’ and quoted by researchers in various countries. His articles / views appear in newspapers / magzines in Europe, US and Asia. He is a sought after guest editor for special issues by number of international journals of repute. He has been invited by international conferences (ISMOT, MSKE), professional forums (IASK, Global Forum etc), industry associations (FICCI, CII etc), research centers (IPM, Beijing; Chinese Academy of Sciences etc) and universities (UNU, Tsinghua etc) as an expert speaker. He has acted as a mentor / supervisor for doctoral students in many universities.
Besides being a prolific writer and a popular teacher; he is highly sought after trainer on strategy and innovation. He has conducted various executive development programs for middle to senior management and, has conducted consulting assignments for top management of organizations. He is Professor of Strategy with MDI Gurgaon and holds a PhD in Strategy. He has worked in the Americas, Europe and Asia. His academic and research experience includes University Business School, Panjab University (Chandigarh, India); Management Development Institute (Gurgaon, India); Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (Kozhikode, India); R. H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland (Maryland, USA); Harvard University (Boston, USA); and MCI Management Centre (Innsbruck, Austria) among others.
Awards and Honours (Select)
• Asia Fellow, Harvard University, Boston, USA.
• He is pioneer in explaining strategy using humour by his first of its kind book ‘Strategic Humour: Democratising Strategy’. It is highly appreciated by CEOs and CEOs find it hilarious, incisive, applicable and a must read. Through his concept of strategic humour he is able to bring disruptive innovation in the concept of strategy and democratise strategy. For details see www.strategichumour.org
• Awarded Education Excellence Award for Best Professor in Strategy in India by ASSOCHAM and Education Post.
• Ranked # 1 jointly on average research productivity among management faculty from IIMs/IITs/ISB in India for research output from 1968 to 2014.
• Ranked globally # 3 for number of research publications on India in area of business management for 1960-2010 in ISI Web of Science databases (the global leading impact factor based journal database) by a research study in an international journal of repute.
• On advisory board of more than 100 international research journals¸ professional bodies and conferences consisting of leading international academicians¸ industry leaders and policy makers.
• Visiting Fellowship, R. H. Smith School of Business¸ University of Maryland (Maryland¸ USA).
• MDI Best Research Professor number of times.
