Professor Himanshu Rai Joins As IIM Indore’s New Director

Dr. Himanshu Rai is the new director of IIM Indore, prior to this he was a Professor at IIM Lucknow where he taught from 2006 to 2014 and then again joined back on 1 September 2016. Before this he was the Dean of MISB Bocconi and Professor at SDA Bocconi, Milan, Italy from 2014 to 2016. Earlier, he had a stint of a little over a year at XLRI Jamshedpur. As the Convener of CAT 2010, he successfully led the largest format change in world’s testing history exceeding all global standards of testing. He has held the positions of Chairman HRM Group, Admissions, Corporate Communications & Media Relations, and Executive Programs at IIM Lucknow.

He obtained his doctorate from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, making seminal contribution in the area of Conflict Resolution & Negotiation. His profile includes a stint of over 8 years at Tata Steel, India, where he played a pivotal role in developing Quality Systems for his Departments & Communication Policy for the Company. He teaches a variety of courses to PG & Doctoral students including Negotiation, Justice, Leadership & Business Research Methods. He has consulted with several organizations including World Bank,Planning Commission of India, International Finance Corporation, UP State Road Transport Corporation, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero Honda and SEWA. His consultancies include Strategic Planning, HR Interventions, and Organizational Restructuring & Development.

He is a recipient of the coveted N.T.S.E. Scholarship and Infosys Fellowship. He has published in refereed journals and books, and his current areas of research include Negotiation, HRM Issues, Management and Religion, Spirituality, Gender, Influence Tactics & Proxemics.

Dr. Rai has trained over 20,000 professionals, both in the private sector as well as the government. Some of his training interventions include helping Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie to develop a training module on “Ethics and Anti-Corruption Strategies” for all Indian Administrative Services officers across career phases; “Training of Trainers” on Negotiation Skills for faculty and senior management of LBSNAA, Mussoorie, and subsequent training on Negotiation for Phase V IAS Officers (IAS with 27-30 years of service); Workshop on “Crisis Leadership” for a large Oil company; Series of workshops on “Creating Sustainable Performance at Dealership” dealers of a large auto organization in India; Workshops on “Negotiation Skills”, Leadership, and Commnunicvation Skills for more than a dozen organizations in India and abroad.

Aspiring to bring in a moral compass to management education, he launched an elective course titled, “Justice, Ethics and Morality”, which has become one of the most popular courses now at the IIMs. He further helps his students discover themselves with a workshop called “Framing Identities and Roles through Exploration”.

Dr. Rai loves adventure, particularly mountaineering and trekking, and has over a dozen expeditions to his credit. He is a voracious reader, a yoga teacher and a connoisseur of music.