Prof. Arvind Sahay recently joined as the Director of MDI Gurgaon on Tuesday, October 17, 2023. Before joining MDI Gurgaon, Prof. Sahay held the position of Professor of Marketing at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A). Known very well to a generation of students and managers, Prof. Sahay has made significant contributions to IIM Ahmedabad as a teacher, researcher, consultant and administrator. He served as the Founding Chairperson of the NSE Center for Behavioral Sciences and the India Gold Policy Center Chairperson at IIM Ahmedabad just before his joining MDI.
The appointment represents a significant milestone for MDI in its journey towards excellence, given Prof. Sahay’s standing in the field of marketing academia and his leadership role at IIM-A. His career traces its foundation to a robust educational background, with a Ph.D. in Marketing Strategy and International Business from The University of Texas at Austin, earned between 1992 and 1996. His academic journey began with a PGDM, focusing on Marketing and Finance, at IIM, Ahmedabad, from 1987 to 1989. Prof. Sahay completed a Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India, from 1982 to 1986. This trifecta of qualifications, extensive research, teaching and industry engagement, and his boardroom experience spanning his experience at London Business School and IIM, Ahmedabad, form the cornerstone of his knowledge and expertise in marketing and business.
Prof. Sahay’s contributions to academia are extensive. He has published research extensively in international peer-reviewed journals, has written more than 60 cases and has been an outstanding teacher along with leadership roles in his career, including roles such as Dean of Alumni & External Relations (2013-16), Chairperson of PGPX (2007-09), Chairperson of Executive Education (2017-19), and Chairperson of the Marketing Area (2019-2021) at IIM Ahmedabad. He has also consulted with India, SE Asia and the UK firms. His recent work is in the area of applications of behavioural science in business.
Citing from The CXO Playbook programme, Prof. Sahay believes “the right kind of intervention in a choice architecture helps to achieve the right kind of behavioural change required for desired outcomes – be it amplifying the efficiency of the sales team, or be in creating a brand that engages better with the customer, or be it in getting the creative team to adopt out-of-box thinking or be it in achieving a behavioural change that alters team dynamics – in each case leading to better organizational performance.”
In business education in India, he is a pioneer in teaching and researching neuroscience applications in marketing and business. As the founding chairperson of the Center for Behavioral Science at IIMA, he has also done work for leading firms in the applications of neuroscience in advertising (metrics, testing), branding (customer insight and brand positioning tests), and HR (employee engagement). His recent research has focused on diverse areas, such as pricing, neuroscience, brand management, gold policy, FOPL, blockchain, and innovation. In March 2022, Prof. Sahay published his second book “Brands and the Brain.
