One of the world’s leading innovation experts – VG is responsible for the ground-breaking concept of Reverse Innovation which has been hailed as the most significant opportunity for large corporations over the next 5 years

• Strategy
• Globalization
• Global Management
• Please see profile
• Innovation
• Execution

Vijay Govindarajan is known as VG and was born in India. He credits his grandfather with granting him the gift of ambition which he has used to good purpose, getting first a degree in Chartered Accountancy, for which he was awarded the President’s Gold Medal and then an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was given the Robert Bowne Prize for best thesis proposal and was included on the Dean’s List. He has taught at Harvard Business School, INSEAD and the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.

Career
VG is Professor of International Business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and is the author of several books and countless articles. He has worked closely with international corporations, spending 2 years from 2008 with General Electric as their independent advisor in residence. Their collaboration led to the theory of Reverse Innovation which suggests that big business should look at the needs of poorer countries when innovating new products, rather than trying to create demand for existing products designed for a very different market. He suggests that this process can unlock vast untapped markets so far untouched by globalization. It was rated by Harvard Business Review as one of the ten big ideas of the decade and was published as a book with Chris Trimble in 2012. The book became a Wall St Journal and New York Times bestseller.

He went on to become a central figure in the challenge to design a $300 house, which is both a social project and one that builds on this approach to innovation. 

His other published work includes Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators and The Other Side of Innovation. He writes a blog and his work appears in leading business journals like the Harvard Business Review and Business Week. He is working on his next book about what it takes to turn a big idea into a success.

VG has been described as a “gifted teacher” and works with both students and the CEOs of many of the top Fortune 500 firms. His clients have included Coca-Cola, IBM, P&G and Sony. He is an experienced speaker and has appeared around the world including the World Economic Forum at Davos. He is also part of the consulting firm Innosight.

Accolades and Awards

• Thinkers 50 Most Influential Business Thinkers in the World Rated #3, 2011
• “Winner of Breakthrough Innovation Award” Thinkers 50, 2011
• McKinsey Award for the best article in Harvard Business Review
• Named by Business Week as Outstanding Faculty in its Guide to Best B-Schools and Top Ten Business School Professor in Corporate Executive Education.
• Forbes Top Five Most Respected Executive Coach on Strategy.
• Times (London) Top 50 Management Thinker
• Economist - Rising Super Star
• Outstanding Teacher of the Year, voted by MBA students.
• He has been inducted into the Academy of Management Journals’ Hall of Fame
• Ranked by Management International Review as one of the Top 20 North American Superstars for research in strategy and organization.
• Among the ten most cited articles in the Academy of Management Journal over 40 years.

Praise for Reverse Innovation
A book that offers provocative insights into the quickly changing dynamics of the global economy
The Wall Street Journal

A playbook for leaders who want to unlock growth in emerging markets
Robert A McDonald, Chairman, President and CEO of Procter and Gamble

A framework for the next phase of globalization
Jeffrey R Immelt Chairman and CEO General Electric

A how-to guide for executive looking to innovate beyond the US and Europe
Fortune.com

• Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators – from Idea to Execution with Chris Trimble (2005)
• The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge with Chris Trimble (2010)
• Reverse Innovation: Create Far From Home, Win Everywhere with Chris Trimble (2012)

• English