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.

Rajendra Srivastava is the former Dean of the Indian School of Business (ISB) and the Novartis Professor of Marketing Strategy and Innovation. He comes with an experience of over 30 years as an academic and administrator. He has held several tenured faculty and administrative positions throughout his career. Before joining ISB, he served as Provost and Deputy President of Academic Affairs at Singapore Management University.

His research interests include marketing strategy, marketing metrics, and brand/customer Management. His current work focuses on business model innovations, especially in services, B2B, technology, and emerging markets. He is best known globally for his work on measuring the impact of market-facing business processes (innovation, supply-chain, and customer management) that create value for customers, and the value of market-based assets (customers, channels, brands, and value networks). He is also recognised for his work in competitive market structures and brand equity/strategic brand management.

His latest research and teaching interests include strategic performance management, marketing accountability, and driving growth and shareholder value.

Professor Srivastava is a highly cited scholar with work published in leading marketing journals. He is also the recipient of several awards and honours. He has been actively involved in setting up several new postgraduate and doctoral programmes as well as research centres and initiatives in close collaboration with industry. He has also been involved in consulting and senior management training with global MNCs and brings a unique blend of experiences integrating academic and business perspectives from both the West and the East. 

He is a committed advocate of cross-functional integration in the management of business processes and has championed interdisciplinary research and academic programmes. He has nurtured multi-disciplinary areas of excellence in financial markets, innovation, and business analytics.

Prior to joining Singapore Management University, he held distinguished research chairs and senior management positions at the University of Texas at Austin and Emory University in Atlanta.