Dr. Sankalp Pratap

Management Consultant, Entrepreneur, Researcher,

Teacher but above all, Story - Teller

Sankalp serves SME, IIT Jodhpur as Associate Professor in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship area. He brings with him over a decade of varied experience in the corporate world ahead of his doctoral studies, and subsequently, ~ 5 years of full-time experience in the academic domain.

Education and corporate experience

Having gained his engineering degree from MERI Kolkata (erstwhile DMET Calcutta), Sankalp's career began as engineer officer on board merchant ships of Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), Singapore . This stint afforded him the experience of working in high pressure engine room conditions alongside professionals of multiple nationalities. He subsequently worked at Infosys Technologies during the Y2K phase, on projects serving global financial majors. Next, he pursued his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta with a focus on Strategy and Marketing, securing multiple awards for academic excellence. His post-MBA experience at the Tata Group spread over seven years gave him a functional grounding in Strategic Management, Marketing, Human Resources and Post-Merger Integration, apart from affording a year-long exposure to the domain of management consulting practice. Before

Academics, Work experience and Research work

Sankalp pursued his PhD from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta in the area of Strategic Management. His corporate work experience had exposed him to the micro-practices of managers across hierarchical levels and a broad range of functional domains. At the same time, involvement in transnational projects gave him a ringside view of how geo-political issues as also social dynamics and competitive concerns informed the seemingly mundane daily work. The linkages between the micro and macro which he experienced during his corporate career found academic resonance in the ‘practice turn’ of social sciences which informed his thesis work. His thesis was located in the Strategy as Practice (SAP) sensibility wherein he investigated the daily doings, particularly the embodied and materialised aspects of strategy work, and how the collective of such effort connects with broader social phenomena.

Subsequent to his PhD, Sankalp worked at the Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli as Associate Professor (Strategy), where he taught Entrepreneurship and Corporate Entrepreneurship apart from the capstone course in Strategy and various doctoral courses. During his tenure at IIM Trichy, he held administrative positions like Chairperson (Doctoral Programs), Chairperson (Strategy) and mentored the student’s Entrepreneurship-Cell and Consulting club.

Sankalp has published in the Strategic Management Journal (FT - 50) among others, has presented his papers in multiple editions of EGOS and is an active writer of case studies for classroom teaching.

He is interested in supervising PhDs in the following areas:

• • New venture creation and associated practices / issues

  • Corporate Entrepreneurship

  • Start-up team dynamics

  • The art of Pitching and fundraising

  • Entrepreneurship ecosystems

  • Practices in incubation centers

  • Entrepreneurial failure

  • Art entrepreneurship

  • Indigenous entrepreneurship

  • Healthcare Entrepreneurship

Current Interests and developments

Sankalp is fascinated with the energy with which the youth of India is expressing its entrepreneurial spirit in the new millennium, and has located his recent research endeavours in this area.

He provides management consulting and training services focussed on contemporary challenges around the matrix of innovation, digital transformation and entrepreneurship. He does this in close collaboration with a complementary set of IIM and IIT academicians and alumnus with vast ranging experience.