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.

Manish Gangwar is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Indian School of Business (ISB). He is a distinguished faculty member and the Executive Director of the Institute of Data Science and Business Analytics at ISB. A leading academic in pricing and business analytics, he has previously served as Associate Dean of Research and RCI Management at ISB. Professor Gangwar holds a PhD in Management Science from the University of Texas at Dallas, an MS from the University of Kentucky, and a BE from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, complemented by years of industry experience.

Widely recognised as one of India’s foremost academicians in data science, Professor Gangwar has received several awards for his contributions to research and teaching. He serves on the editorial review boards of several leading academic journals. His expertise lies in advanced analytical methodologies, including machine learning, econometrics, data science, and game theory.

His research spans a wide range of topics, such as competitive promotions, omnichannel retail strategies, dynamic pricing, SaaS revenue models, and the application of AI in marketing. He has published extensively in top-tier academic journals such as Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, Operations Research, Product and Operations Management, and the Journal of Retailing, as well as in book chapters and industry publications. For more information, please visit his Google Scholar Profile.