Vijaya Sunder M, Ph.D.

Vijaya Sunder M is currently an Assistant Professor of Operations Management (Practice), Program Director for Operational Excellence for Leaders Programme and Experiential Learning Program Chair at the Indian School of Business (ISB). Additionally, he is an advisory board member of the Executive Fellow Program in Management, and ISB Executive Education. He was the Academic Director of the Centre for Business Innovation from 2023 to 2024.

He is an empirical scholar and his research interests include Operational Excellence, Project Management, Human-Centric (Behavioral) Operations, Digital Transformation and Human-AI Collaboration. He is the author of three books and over 50 scholarly papers published in top academic outlets such as Production and Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management, Int. Journal of Operations & Production Management, Int. Journal of Production Economics, and Int. Journal of Production Research. Additionally, his writings have appeared in reputed practitioner outlets such as the Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and Rotman Management. His teaching case studies, published by Harvard Business Publishing, are among the bestsellers. 

He is the recipient of prestigious accolades that include 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. He was featured in Business Mint’s 50 Under 50 Brightest Minds of India 2025 for his contributions to the field of Operational Excellence. He is a recipient of IIT Madras Best Researcher Award in 2018, and Quality Champion Award (Gold category) by QCI, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt. of India in 2022, and Financial Times Responsible Business Education Award (Runner-up) in 2022. Before becoming an academic, he had over 18 years of industry experience across global corporations in various leadership positions. Previously, he was Head of Business Process Excellence at the World Bank Group, Assistant-Vice-President at Barclays, and Quality Leader at American Express and Citi. 

He actively teaches specialized management courses for MBA, Executive MBA, and Ph.D. scholars that include Business Process Excellence, Digital Transformation in Services, Project Management, Operations Management. He won multiple “Professor of the Year” – Best Teacher: Teaching Excellence Awards for PGP - Core & Elective Courses for Class of 2021 (1 award), Class of 2023 (2 awards), Class of 2024 (1 award), Class of 2025 (3 awards) and AMPH Class of 2024 (1 award). 

Additionally, as a consultant and trainer, he has trained more than 10k business executives worldwide. He is a TEDx speaker and sought-after keynote speaker with a global following.