Prof. Rishikesha T. Krishnan

(MSc5/PHY/1986)

Prof. Rishikesha Krishnan is a Professor of Strategy at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB). He has led two of India's leading business schools as the Director - the Indian Institute of Management Indore (2014-19) and the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (2020-25) - with distinction. He held the Jamuna Raghavan Chair in Entrepreneurship at IIMB from 2007-2010. His main areas of interest are strategy and innovation.

Prof. Krishnan holds an M.Sc in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur; an M.S in Engineering-Economic Systems (now Management Science & Engineering) from Stanford University; and the title of Fellow (equivalent to Ph.D) from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, where his thesis proposal won the outstanding thesis proposal award instituted by the Industrial Finance Corporation of India. He has been listed in the Thinkers50 India list of most influential management thinkers from India. Prof. Krishnan has extensive corporate board and advisory experience. He is currently on the boards of Gujarat State Petronet Ltd., Wheels India Ltd., and the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA). He is also on the advisory board of YourNest Investment Advisors. He has served on several committees set up by the Government of India and prominent industry associations related to innovation in India. He is a member of the CII National Committee on Technology, Innovation & Development; Research, and the CII National Higher Education Committee. Prof. Krishnan was a member of the expert committee set up by the Government of India in 2017-18 under the chairmanship of Justice BN Srikrishna to propose a data protection framework for India. He has been on the jury of the Economic Times start-up awards.

Apart from academic publications, Prof. Krishnan has written two books: "8 Steps to Innovation: Going from Jugaad to Excellence" (co-authored with Vinay Dabholkar) which won the Best Book Award for 2013-14 from the Indian Society for Training & Development and "From Jugaad to Systematic Innovation: The Challenge for India."

Honouring his stellar contributions in the fields of Management Education and Thought Leadership, IIT Kanpur confers upon Prof. Rishikesha T. Krishnan the Distinguished Alumni Award 2025.