Rajeshwari Krishnamurthy

Professor of Practice - Marketing

Dr Rajeshwari Krishnamurthy is an industry leader turned academician, who completed her Post Graduate in Management from IIM Ahmedabad and Ph.D. from IIT Madras. She brings with her 15 years of corporate experience with leading organisations such as Hindustan Unilever (where she won the Chairman Award at an early age) and Nippon Paint, where she was a part of the India market launch team. Her last corporate position was Vice President Marketing and Branding. She has been responsible for managing both the topline and bottom line results of many organizations and has travelled extensively - both domestic and International- while dealing with many cross cultural teams.

Her 14 years of academic experience have been with Institutions such as the leading IIMs, XLRI Jamshedpur and Great Lakes Institute of Management. She briefly served as Dean (Academics) at MCC Boyd Tandon School of Business, where she worked on arriving at the brand positioning and setting up of a new B School. Known for her innovative initiatives, Rajeshwari, set up the Centre for Women Leadership at Great Lakes , where she launched a Job return ship program for those women who are on a career break and are looking to resuming their work journey. She also conceptualized the B School competitions strategy that enables students to get placements at premier organisations.

Rajeshwari is an author of 3 books published on diverse topics such as ‘Mid-life career choices’ ( which was declared a best seller by the publisher Macmillan)’ and ‘New product development in FMCG’( which is a B School reference text book used at XLRI, IIM Ranchi, Great Lakes etc). She is on the Global Board on the organization mentorW, that provides support and advice to working women, as well as on the International Board of Product Development Management Association USA. She regularly conducts Corporate Training Programs across leading organisations, in the area of Sales and Marketing. She has been a regular columnist with the Hindu Business Line and publishes frequently in National and International academic journals. Rajeshwari 's research interests include- Metaverse, Innovations and new product development, Informal Innovations, and Sales management. She has been a part of several professional organizations such as CII Task Force for Entrepreneurship, American Marketing Association, Institute of Research Bureau, Product Development Management Association, IIM Ahmedabad Executive Committee, Empowering Women in IT industry, etc. She has served on the selection panel of IIMs for both students and faculty, including selection of students for Ph.D and Post Doctoral work at IIMs.

She was named ‘Distinguished Woman in Management’ and ‘Outstanding Woman in Management’ for many years between 2011 and 2019, and has won several teaching and International research Awards in her career. She was also nominated for the ‘Distinguished Young Alumni Award at IIM Ahmedabad’, for her corporate and academic accomplishments.

Rajeshwari participates in marathon races and is an avid reader. Her other passions include spending time with her son as well as practicing yoga/listening to music.

Research Interests

• New product development
• Sales and channel management
• Marketing communications

Papers Published

International Refereed Journals

• Rajeshwari Krishnamurthy and Rushikesh Borse “ Factors to consider while choosing Metaverse as an advertising medium”, California Management Review insights, (Accepted-2024).
• Sanchit Misra, Shibashish Chakraborthy and Rajeshwari Krishnamurthy “ Will Metaverse take the Omnichannel experience forward”, California Management Review insights, (2022).
• Rajeshwari Krishnamurthy, Vaibhav Chawla, Ashok Venkatramani, Gayathri D Jayan. “Transforming your brand using the Metaverse-Eight strategic elements to plan for “California Management Review insights, (2022).
• Rajeshwari Krishnamurthy and Rushikesh Borse. “Why is AIML best suited for Metaverse consumer data analysis?”, California Management Review insights, (2023).
• Rajeshwari Krishnamurthy and Gautam Agarwal, “Informal innovations-by the employee, of the employee & for the organisation", Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, (2023).
• Rajeshwari Krishnamurthy, Sujatha Manohar. “Reverse Innovations-changing the rules of the game” The Case Centre, (2023)
• Rajeshwari, K, Rammya, and Pavitra. “Sustainable new product adoption-A Case of E Vehicles” Corporate Governance and Sustainability Review”, (2022).
• Rajeshwari, K., and Shameem Shagirbasha. "How does organizational culture affect NPD in a startup?” Academy of Marketing Studies Journal 25.4 (2021): 1-8.
• Jain, Muskan, Angeline Gautami Fernando, and K. Rajeshwari. "How Do Consumers Perceive Brand Campaigns on Twitter?" International Working Conference on Transfer and Diffusion of IT. Springer, Cham, (2020).
• Krishnamurthy, Rajeshwari. "Nature products–sales and distribution management." Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies (2018).
• Rajeshwari, K. "Next gen stage gate NPD process in an entrepreneurial company." International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology 8.1 (2017): 27.
• Rajeshwari, K. "New product development in an entrepreneurial company." International Journal of Product Development 22.2 (2017): 81-103.
• Gopalakrishna, Pradeep, Rajeshwari Victor, and David Fleischmann. "Starbucks in India." Journal of Case Studies 34.2 (2016): 92-102.
• Victor, Rajeshwari. "How Cooking as a Consumption Practice Resolves Value Conflicts." ACR North American Advances (2014).
• Victor, Rajeshwari. "Never innovate to compete rather innovate to change the rules of the game." Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies (2012).

Refereed National Journals

• K Rajeshwari – ‘Painting a perfect picture’-ICFAI Jan 2016
• K Rajeshwari- ‘Mid-life career challenges of working women’- National Institute of skill and entrepreneurship development- ‘GOI Conference Proceedings Nov 2016
• K Rajeshwari- ‘Women and Mid Life Challenges’, CII India Women network, Nov 2016

Papers Under Review/Progress

• “Drivers of Dual advocacy among B2B sales people”-co-author with Deva Rangarajan. Industrial Marketing Management. (A*)
• “NPD – Literature Review- 2010-2021”-co-author with S Bharadwaj. Journal of Product Innovation Management. (A*)
• “New Product Development-Small firms versus Large firms”-co-author with S Bharadwaj. Journal of Small Business Management. (A)
• “Smarter advertising through Metaverse”-co-author Rushikesh Borse, Journal of Advertising research(A)
• “Stress Management and Conservation of Resources during Successive Disaster Events: A Study among teleworkers and their households”- co-author with Dr Shameem (International Journal of disaster risk reduction 'A')
• “A study on change in media habits in pre and during crisis-pandemic”-Adarsh Jalan and Rajeshwari Krishnamurthy.

Books

• Rajeshwari- “The New Plan A” Notion Press, Chennai, INDIA, 2018. (Link)
• Rajeshwari, K. “NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT-A FMCG PERSPECTIVE.” Notion Press, Chennai, INDIA, 2017.-B School reference text book for NPD.
• Rajeshwari, “My Life My Choice”-Macmillan, Gurgaon, INDIA, 2011. (Link)
• Rajeshwari, K. NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT-A FMCG PERSPECTIVE. Notion Press, 2017.

Book Chapters

• Krishnamurthy Rajeshwari and Garima Sahay “Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions-Bridging the gap between Global North and South”-Emerald Book Publishing, 2023.
• Krishnamurthy Rajeshwari and Shagun Trivedi “User Experience in the Metaverse- a Flow Theory perspective”-IGI Global Publishing, 2023
• Krishnamurthy, Rajeshwari, Shameem Shagirbasha, and Geeta Ramanathan. "New Normal Work: Through the Lens of Working Women."Stakeholder Strategies for Reducing the Impact of Global Health Crises. IGI Global, 2021. 85-98.
• Jain, Muskan, Angeline Gautami Fernando, and K. Rajeshwari. "How Do Consumers Perceive Brand Campaigns on Twitter?." International Working Conference on Transfer and Diffusion of IT. Springer, Cham, 2020.
• Krishnamurthy, Rajeshwari. "Social Media as a Marketing Tool." Application of Gaming in New Media Marketing. IGI Global, 2019. 181-201.

Invited speech/Panel discussions

• Tata National webinar- 'B2B Sales during COVID-19' May 2021
• IIT Madras- 'Improving women representation in research'-March 2019
• IIM Ahmedabad-'Mid life career choices'-Dec 2011
• IBM National webinar-'Work from home challenges'-June 2021
• Jharkhand IT Symposium'-How can technology improve higher education' Nov 2015

Media Articles

• https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/marketing/the-vaccine-dilemma-stop-spreading-start-living/83135450
• http://www.businessworld.in/article/Impact-of-Budget-2021-on-the-FMCG-Sector-/17-02-2021-378615/
• https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/covid-vaccine-from-the-lab-to-the-last-mile/article33281734.ece?utm_campaign=amp_article_share&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=whatsapp.com
• http://ibt.tpci.in/blogs/b2b-marketing-post-covid-companies-need-to-map-entire-customer-journey/
• http://www.businessworld.in/article/The-Rise-Of-The-Sales-Woman/19-06-2020-289136
• http://everythingexperiential.businessworld.in/article/Can-anything-be-experiential-anymore-Dr-K-Rajeshwari/20-05-2020-192737/
• https://www.adgully.com/gauging-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-outdoor-advertising-92675.html