Vijay Govindarajan
Vijay Govindarajan, known as VG, is the Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of International Business at the Tuck School of Business and founding director of Tuck's Center for Global Leadership. He is also the faculty co-director for Global Leadership 2020, Tuck's executive education program that focuses on global management and is taught on three continents.
Govindarajan currently writes a column for FastCompany.com. His articles have also appeared in journals such as Harvard Business Review, strategy+business, California Management Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Decision Sciences, and Journal of Business Strategy. One of his papers, co-authored with Professor Anil K. Gupta, was recognized as one of the ten most-often cited articles in the entire 40-year history of Academy of Management Journal. Govindarajan has published six books, including The Quest for Global Dominance (co-authored with Anil K. Gupta, Jossey-Bass, 2001). He is a popular keynote speaker and has been featured at such conferences as the Business Week CEO Forum and The Economist Conference.
Prior to joining the faculty at Tuck, Govindarajan was on the faculties of the Ohio State University and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. He has also served as a visiting professor at Harvard Business School, INSEAD, the International University of Japan, and Helsinki School of Economics. Govindarajan received his doctorate and his MBA with distinction from the Harvard Business School. Prior to this, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant in India. He was awarded the President's Gold Medal for his outstanding performance in obtaining the first rank.[citation needed]
A book coauthored by Professors Vijay Govindarajan and Christopher Trimble, Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators: From Idea to Execution was named named one of the strategy+business's Best Business Books of 2006 in the Strategy category.
In a soon-to-be released study, "The Emotionally Bonded Organization:Why Emotional Infrastructure Matters and How Leaders Can Build It," Govindarajan and co-author Subroto Bagchi identify a critical new asset in Fortune 500 companies known as Emotional Infrastructure. Defined as the factors that motivate people to do their best for the corporate good, emotional infrastructure is more difficult and time-intensive to build than physical and intellectual infrastructure—but it’s also harder for a competitor to imitate.
Govindarajan recently took a leave of absence from Tuck and joined General Electric (GE) as Professor in Residence and Chief Innovation Consultant for one year. He co-authored - How GE is Disrupting Itself an article in Harvard Business Review (October 2009) with Jeffrey R. Immelt and Chris Trimble. The article describes reverse innovation, an approach used by several US multinationals to create new products.