Vijaya Sunder M

Vijaya Sunder M is an Assistant Professor of Operations Management (Practice) and Programme Director of the Operational Excellence for Leaders Programme at the Indian School of Business (ISB). He also serves on the advisory board of ISB’s Executive Fellow Programme in Management and Executive Education. Previously, he was Chair of the Experiential Learning Programme (2022-2025), Academic Director of the Centre for Business Innovation (2023–2024), and a BAT Research Fellow (2021–2023).

He holds a PhD in Operational Excellence from IIT Madras and brings over 18 years of industry experience from global corporations. He has served as Head of Business Process Excellence at the World Bank Group, Assistant Vice President at Barclays, and Quality Leader at American Express and Citi.

Professor Sunder’s research focuses on operational excellence, project management, behavioural operations, and human-AI collaboration. He has authored three books and published scholarly research in leading journals, including Production and Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Business Research, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. His articles have also appeared in Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Management and Business Review, and Rotman Management. His teaching case studies, published by Harvard Business Publishing, are among the bestsellers.
Professor Sunder has received several prestigious honours, including ASQ’s Global Crosby Award, IAQ’s

Walter E. Masing Award, and recognition as one of PEX Network’s (IQPC) Top 50 Operational Excellence Thought Leaders worldwide. In 2025, he was featured in Business Mint’s 50 Under 50 Brightest Minds of India for his contributions to the field of Operational Excellence. He is also a recipient of IIT Madras Best Researcher Award in 2018, the Quality Champion Award (Gold category) by the Quality Control of India (QCI), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India in 2022, and the Financial Times Responsible Business Education Award (Runner-up) in 2022.

At ISB, he teaches PGP, Executive MBA, and PhD courses such as Business Process Excellence, Operational Excellence, Digital Transformation in Services, Project Management, and Operations Management. He has won multiple “Professor of the Year” – Best Teacher: Teaching Excellence Awards for the PGP core and elective courses for the Class of 2021 (one award), Class of 2023 (two awards), Class of 2024 (one award), Class of 2025 (three awards), and the AMPH Class of 2024 (one award).

A TEDx speaker and sought-after keynote presenter, Professor Sunder  has trained over 10,000 business executives worldwide and is widely known for his innovative and experiential pedagogies.

• PhD in Operations, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, 2019
• Master Black Belt in Six Sigma (MBB), Statistical Quality Control & Operations Research, Indian Statistical Institute, 2014
• MBA, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, 2009
• B.E in Electronics and Communications, Anna University, 2007

Academic positions

• 2021 - Present: Assistant Professor (Practice) & Program Director of Operational Excellence for Leaders Program, Indian School of Business
• 2020 - Present: Assistant Professor (Practice), Indian School of Business
• 2022 - 2024: Assistant Professor (Practice) & Academic Director, Centre for Business Innovation, Indian School of Business
• 2013 - 2020: Visiting Faculty, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Puttaparthi

Professional Positions

• 2015 - 2019: Head of Department – Business Process Excellence & Digital Transformation, The World Bank Group, Chennai, India and Washington DC, USA
• 2012 - 2015: Assistant Vice President – Change Management Initiatives, Barclays, Chennai and Mumbai, India and Delaware, USA
• 2011 - 2012: Manager – Six Sigma and Project Management, American Express, Gurgaon, India
• 2009 - 2011: Assistant Manager – Process reengineering Group, Citi Group, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai, India
• 2004 - 2007: Trainer, Sri Sai Institute, Chennai, India

• Krishnan, Navaneetha., Baliga, Ashwin., Mourya, Mohit., Sunder M, Vijaya. (2023) "Wat-a-Burger: Aiming for Growth in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) Environment", Harvard Business Publishing Education
• Sunder M, Vijaya., Modukuri, Siddhartha., Srivastava, Rajendra. (2023) "Aadhaar: The Digital Multiplier of the Indian Economy", Harvard Business Publishing Education
• Sunder M, Vijaya. (2023) "Account Opening in Blue Bank - Part A: Process Visualization", Harvard Business Publishing Education
• Sunder M, Vijaya. (2023) "Account Opening in Blue Bank - Part B: Root Cause Analysis", Harvard Business Publishing Education
• Sunder M, Vijaya., Mamidi, Rithica. (2023) "An Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Based Disruptive Innovation in Cataract Screening: The Case of E-Paarvai", Harvard Business Publishing Education
• Singha, Sumanta., Sohoni, Milind., Devalkar, Sripad., Sunder M, Vijaya. (2023) "Artificial Intelligence for Improving the Procurement Experience of Non-Stock Items at Indian Railways", Harvard Business Publishing Education
• Sunder M, Vijaya., Saihjpal, Vinodini., Shah, Geetika. (2023) "Telangana Graduates' MLC Elections 2021: Handling Known and Unknown Uncertainties", Indian School of Business
• Sunder M, Vijaya., Raman, M., Seshadri, D. V. R. (2022) "Hopes Critical Care: Scale-up of a tele-intensive care solution", Harvard Business Publishing
• Sohoni, Milind., Sunder M, Vijaya., Chitla, Sandeep., Rout, Arun., Mallya, A. (2022) "Data Analytics Based Decision Making at Teach for India", HBS Case: ISB325-PDF-ENG
• Sunder M, Vijaya., Deo, Sarang., Modukuri, Siddhartha. (2022) "Project Ashray: Planning a Time-Constrained Project", Indian School of Business
• Sunder M, Vijaya., Raman, M.. (2022) "Health-Tech Strategy at KG Hospital Part A: Identification and Prioritization of Key Focus Areas", Harvard Business Publishing
• Sunder M, Vijaya., Raman, M.. (2022) "Health-Tech Strategy at KG Hospital Part B: Tech Strategy Design and Implementation", Harvard Business Publishing
• Sunder M, Vijaya. (2022) "Creative Chocolates in Nigeria: To Test Market or Not?", Harvard Business Publishing, 4
• Sunder M, Vijaya., Sohoni, Milind., Kumar, S.. (2021) "Executing the Bogibeel Bridge for Social Impact – Risk Planning and Managing Earned Value", HBS Case ISB265
• Sunder M, Vijaya., Shah, S.. (2021) "Premamrutha Dhaara Project: A sustainable water purification system for social impact", Harvard Business Publishing
• Sunder M, Vijaya., Sohoni, Milind., Kishore, S.., Tewari, A.., Kumar, S.. (2021) "Swachh Rail, Swachh Bharat: Adoption of Bio-Toilets in Indian Railways", HBR Case (ISB 254)
• Sunder M, Vijaya., Deo, Sarang. (2021) "Technology decision-making in a semi-urban ICU: An intensivist's dilemma", Harvard Business Publishing, 8
• Sohoni, Milind., Shah, Geetika., Khan, Arun., Nagpal, Rajiv., Ahmed, Asrar., Sunder M, Vijaya. (2020) "SpiceJet: Flying in the Face of Imminent Shutdown", Harvard Business Publishing

• April , 2025: Is Bottom-Up Approach to Continuous Improvement Really Bottom-Up?, California Management Review (CMR) Insights.
• December 19, 2024: Leveraging Process Bundles in Digital Healthcare: Enhancing Care or Widening the Patient-Provider Divide?, California Management Review (CMR) Insights.
• February 13, 2024: AI for Social Good: Revolutionising lives through operational excellence, Forbes India.
• November 20, 2023: Decoding the Augmented Intelligence Matrix for Operational Excellence in the Digital Era, California Management Review (CMR) Insights.
• April 21, 2023: Digitalisation for safeguarding the digital health data, Express Health Care.
• March 16, 2023: Why doctors are critical to digital health deployments, Forbes India.
• December 20, 2022: A Value-Driven Digital Strategy Framework for Healthcare Firms, California Management Review (CMR) Insights.
• October 11, 2022: Electric Vehicles: From transition to transformation in 3 steps, Forbes India.
• August 8, 2022: Realizing and Overcoming the Digital Myopia, California Management Review (CMR) Insights.
• May , 2022: Newborns to entrepreneurs—Indian hospitals need a perinatal service package. It’s a win-win, The Print - Online Newspaper.
• April 21, 2022: India's sustainability Promise, Business India.
• 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.
• August 9, 2020: Shramik saviours, Fortune India.
• July 6, 2020: Shramik trains helped avert a 'humanitarian crisis': Report by ET BUREAU, The Economic Times.
• April , 2020: A Global Study on Quality Professionals”,, The Future Factory.