Faculty Profile
Dr. C B Rao
Professor
Ph.D. — Industrial Management
M.Tech. — Industrial Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras
B.E. — (Mechanical Engineering), Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati
Professional Overview
Dr. C. B. Rao has over 46 years of diversified experience in driving business and organizational growth in reputed world-class Indian companies, including subsidiaries of global MNCs. His expertise covers pharmaceutical and automobile industries, spanning conceptualization, execution, and development of green-field and brown-field projects.
He has travelled across USA, Europe, Japan, and Korea for business development and strategic alliances, building high-performance organisations with talent from multiple business and functional domains.
Leadership Assignments
- Current: Ajit Singhvi Chair Professor in Management Studies, IIT Madras.
- Current: Senior Advisor and Director on the Boards of select global and Indian corporations.
- Founder: LeaderCrest Academy (Est. 2016) - focused on high-quality academic publishing.
- Executive Chairman and Managing Director: Pfizer Healthcare India Private Limited (2010-2015).
- Deputy Managing Director: Orchid Pharma (1998-2010).
- Head of Corporate Planning: Ashok Leyland and Hinduja Group (1978-1998).
- Initial Assignments (1974-1978): State Bank of India, Tata Motors, and Scooters India.
Teaching & Research Interests
- Competitive Strategy
- Strategic Management
- Business Leadership
- Entrepreneurship
NPTEL Contributions
Dr. C. B. Rao has offered two comprehensive courses (12 weeks each) on the NPTEL platform:
- “Entrepreneurship: Perspectives of Business Strategy and Economic Development”
(January-April 2020 semester) - “Leadership for India Inc: Practical Concepts and Constructs”
(January-April 2021 semester)
Publications
Dr. C. B. Rao has contributed over 170 papers in reputed management journals and business forums.
Authored Books (LeaderCrest Banner)
- Strategic Management: Practice and Philosophy for India Inc (2021)
- Product Strategy and Corporate Success: Concepts and Cases from the Indian Automobile Industry (2019)
- Work-Life Balance: Essays in Individual and Organizational Behavior (2019)
- India’s Economic Resurgence: A Modified Paradigm for a Welfare State (2018)
- India as Global Start-up Hub: Mission with Passion (2018)
- Leadership for India Inc.: An Experiential Treatise (2018)
- Competitive Strategy: A Contemporary Retake (2016)
- Technology and Competitive Strategy: Strategies for Innovators, Differentiators and Followers (2016)
- From Start-up to Ramp-up: Indian Context and Global Insights (2016)