Rishikesha T. Krishnan

Professor Krishnan brings a wealth of experience spanning decades of academic leadership, scholarly inquiry, and transformative institutional change. Professor Krishnan’s multidisciplinary educational journey spans Physics, with a five-year Integrated M.Sc. from IIT Kanpur; Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford University’s School of Engineering; and a doctoral programme in Management and Public Policy from IIM Ahmedabad.

A management and policy scholar, his research has focused on innovation in India at organisational, industrial, and national levels, and his work has been published in leading international journals in Management, Economics, Development, and Science Policy. His books on innovation – From Jugaad to Systematic Innovation: The Challenge for India and 8 Steps to Innovation: Going from Jugaad to Excellence (co-authored with Vinay Dabholkar) – have received wide acclaim, with the latter winning the Best Book Award for 2013 from the Indian Society for Training and Development.

Professor Krishnan has helmed two Indian Institutes of Management, completing full terms at both, as Director of IIM Indore (2014-2018) and Director of IIM Bangalore (2020-2025). At IIM Bangalore, he established a School of Multidisciplinary Studies and led the impending launch of the undergraduate programmes in Economics and Data Science. He has served on several boards including that of the Higher Education Financing Agency (a JV between the Government of India and Canara Bank) and the Board of Management of the Manipal Academy of Higher Education.

Professor Krishnan has also been deeply engaged with national policy, having served on committees of the Department of Science & Technology and as a member of the Justice BN Srikrishna Committee that proposed a data protection framework for India. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania, and held the Ram Charan Chair in Innovation and Leadership at IIM Bangalore. In 2025, IIT Kanpur honoured Prof. Rishikesha T. Krishnan with its Distinguished Alumni Award (DAA), the institute’s highest alumni recognition, acknowledging his exceptional contributions to management education and thought leadership.