Vijaya Sunder M

Assistant Professor (Practice), Operations Management
Academic Director, Centre for Business Innovation

Walter E. Masing Thought Leader in Quality Management
ASQ Crosby Medal Recipient Faculty
British American Tobacco (BAT) Research Fellow


Email Vijaya_SunderM@isb.edu

Overview

Vijaya Sunder M is currently an Assistant Professor (Practice), Academic Director for the Centre of Business Innovation, and Experiential Learning Program (ELP) Chair at the Indian School of Business (ISB). Additionally, he is an affiliate faculty at the Max Institute of Healthcare Management, an advisory board member at the Center for Executive Education, and an advisory board member for the Executive Fellow Program in Management (EFPM) at ISB. Previously, he was Head of Business Process Excellence at the World Bank Group, USA, Assistant-Vice-President at Barclays, and Quality Leader at American Express and Citi.

He is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt from the Indian Statistical Institute, PMP, ISO 9001 Quality Lead Auditor and Lean Facilitator, with over 18 years of industry experience across global corporate. Vijaya holds a Ph.D. in Operational Excellence from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, an MBA (summa cum laude) from the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, and a gold medalist in Bachelor of Engineering from Anna University.

He actively teaches specialized management courses for MBA and Executive MBA, Ph.D. scholars, and business executives. His research and teaching interests include Operational Excellence, Project Management, Operations and Supply Chain Management, Behavioral Operations and Digital Transformation.

Vijaya authored two books and 50 research papers in reputed peer-reviewed international journals, including the International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Technovation, International Journal of Production Research, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Journal of Business Research, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, Group & Organization Management, Production Planning & Control, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, among many others. Click here to view his Google Scholar profile.

His applied research articles have been published in reputed partitioner outlets, including California Management Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Asian Management Insights and ASQ’s Quality Progress. His thought leadership articles are published in Forbes, Fortune, The Business Times Singapore, Outlook India, Quint, The New Indian Express, Express Healthcare, The Hindu, The Hindu Business Line, Business India, and The Future Factory. Teaching case studies authored by him have been published in Harvard Business Education Publishing. One of his recent case studies on sustainability was recognized as a runner-up under ‘The Financial Times’ Responsible Business Education Awards 2022 -Teaching cases category. Click here to view his Harvard Publishing profile.

Vijaya has been a keynote speaker at national and international conferences and events including NASSCOM, Production & Operations Management Society, Decision Sciences Institute, and Society of Operations Management, among others. He conducted Faculty Development programs academics and was a resource person in many Management- and Executive- Development Programs conducted for Daimler Trucks, Walmart, Boeing, Air India, Asian Institute of Nephrology and Urology, Indo-Tibet Border Police, Indian Railway Service Officers, Indian Revenue Service Officers, Indian Administrative Service Officers, National Police Academy, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Department of Economic Affairs (Govt. of India), LV Prasad Eye Institute, National Mineral Development Corporation, and others.

Vijaya was among the top 2% of the management scientists 2021 list published by Stanford University based on a composite research score. Additionally, he was among the world’s top 50 thought leaders of operational excellence, by PEX Network, IQPC. The American Society for Quality (ASQ) in 2022 awarded Vijaya the prestigious global Crosby Award for his extraordinary contributions to the field of Quality Management for business executives, researchers, academics, and practitioners. In 2021, he was awarded the Walter E. Masing Book Award 2020 by the International Academy for Quality, USA, and honored as a thought leader in the global quality management community. The Quality Champion Award was bestowed on Vijaya by the Quality Council of India, Government of India, for his outstanding contributions to research and pedagogical innovation in continuous improvement and operational excellence. Vijaya was recognized with the Outstanding Reviewer Award 2018 and the Highly Commended Paper Award 2017 by Emerald Publishing. In 2018, the IIT Madras awarded him the Institute Research Award for his research productivity. Vijaya was honored with the BAT Research Award by British American Tobacco plc. Further, the Indian School of Business bestowed him with the Professor of the Year: Teaching Excellence Award in 2021 for elective courses, and in 2023 for both core and elective courses categories.

Experience

Academic

  • 2022 - Present: Assistant Professor (Practice) & Academic Director, Centre for Business Innovation, Indian School of Business
  • 2020 - Present: Assistant Professor (Practice), Indian School of Business
  • 2019 - 2021: Visiting Faculty, National Rail and Transportation Institute, Vadodara
  • 2013 - 2020: Visiting Faculty, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Puttaparthi
  • 2019 - 2019: Visiting Faculty, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai

Professional

In the Media

March 16, 2023: Why doctors are critical to digital health deployments, Forbes India.

October 11, 2022: Electric Vehicles: From transition to transformation in 3 steps, Forbes India.

April 21, 2022: India's sustainability Promise, Business India.

May , 2022: Newborns to entrepreneurs—Indian hospitals need a perinatal service package. It’s a win-win, The Print - Online Newspaper.

December 13, 2021: Need for national digital readiness within the Indian healthcare system, Forbes India.

October 8, 2021: Next step in healthcare: Sharing economy to overcome resource crisis, Forbes India.

July 7, 2021: Towards a telehealth ecosystem, Fortune India.

June 16, 2021: Getting ready for the third Corona wave, The New Indian Express.

June 7, 2021: Making the case for Lean Six Sigma in the healthcare sector, The Business Times, Singapore.

May 24, 2021: Bringing the internet to billions—the future of data transmission over the internet, Forbes India.

May 3, 2021: How to tackle the oxygen logistics nightmare, The Hindu Business Line.

March 24, 2021: Lean Six Sigma for healthcare: Improving the health of healthcare processes, Express Healthcare.

December 9, 2020: Why COVID Is India’s Chance to Use AI, Tech – And Enter The Future, The Quint.

November 30, 2020: From the source and not through force: Green supply chain practices for environmental sustainability, The Business Times, Singapore.

October 29, 2020: Technology, Crisis Management And The Pandemic, Outlook India.

September 25, 2020: Environmentalism at the core, The Hindu.

April , 2020: A Global Study on Quality Professionals”,, The Future Factory.

August 9, 2020: Shramik saviours, Fortune India.

July 6, 2020: Shramik trains helped avert a 'humanitarian crisis': Report by ET BUREAU, The Economic Times.

Research & Publications