Verified by Srikumar Rao Ph.D.
Dr. Rao received his Ph.D. in Marketing from the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University and his M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. His undergraduate training was in Physics at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. He conceived the pioneering course Creativity and Personal Mastery. This is the only business school course that has its own alumni association and it has been extensively covered in the media including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the London Times, the Independent, Time, the Financial Times, Fortune, Forbes, the Guardian, Business Week and dozens of other publications.
He has done pioneering work in motivation and helps senior executives become more engaged in work and discover deep meaning in it. He also works with teams and groups and has been extraordinarily successful in using group dynamics to foster lasting personal change. Many who have been through his program experience quantum leaps in professional and personal effectiveness.
Dr. Rao is the author of Are You Ready to Succeed: Unconventional Strategies for Achieving Personal Mastery in Business and Life Hyperion, 2006. The book is an international best-seller and has been translated into many languages and distributed in all continents. He is also the author and narrator of The Personal Mastery Program, Sounds True, 2007. His latest book is Happiness at Work: Be Resilient, Motivated and Successful – No Matter What, McGraw-Hill, 2010.
He has conducted workshops attended by and spoken before executives of Microsoft, Google, Morgan Stanley, American Express, Chubb, IBM, United Airlines, Allstate, Johnson & Johnson, Goldman Sachs and dozens of others. He has been a contributing editor for Forbes and writes regularly on management practices, leadership and about the impact of technology on business processes. He also has written for other national magazines such as Inc., Business 2.0, Hemispheres, Beyond Computing and Training and was a contributing editor for both Financial World and Success. He is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors.
Dr. Rao was an executive with Warner Communications, Continental Group, Data Resources and McGraw-Hill and has consulted with such companies as RCA, Reuters, Citicorp, GTE, Pan Am and Diner’s Club. He has been a seminar leader with the Institute for Management Studies and the American Management Association.
Dr. Rao has regularly taught at top business schools including Columbia Business School, London Business School, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served as a marketing advisor to the national board of MENSA. His other interests include tennis, squash, karate, table tennis and chess; Eastern philosophy and meditation; and Wodehouse, science fiction and creative writing.
