Till recently DR. Kumar has been a tenured Professor in Organizational Behavior at IIMB, an institute that enjoys a top rank over the years, both locally and globally. He holds a Master’s degree in Psychology and Parapsychology and a Doctoral degree in Organizational Behavior, both from Andhra University, Waltair, India. Prior to his joining IIMB in 1986, Dr. Kumar was associated with Andhra University, Osmania University, Berhampur University and Government of India’s National Institute of Small Industry Extension Training that has been recognized as a center of excellence by UNIDO for its pioneering endeavors in the area of Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprise Management.
DR. Kumar has over forty years of teaching, training, consulting, and research experience in the fields of Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources Management in addition to wide ranging academic administration. He has been recipient of fellowships from European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) and Association of Management Development in South Asia (AMDISA).
DR. Kumar’s international academic engagements include Visiting Professorships held at ESADE, Barcelona, Spain, and Department of Management, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman, in addition to short term visiting faculty assignments. His research articles have appeared in National and International journals and were shared in several conferences and seminars.
His collaborative research has been published as “Shaping Business Leaders: What B-Schools don’t do”, Sage, 2008. Another co-authored book, “Organizational Growth and Success: A Case Research Study” (released by Sri Sushil Kumar Shinde, Hon’ble Minister for Power, Govt. of India in September 2009) is being used by various business schools in the country as well as abroad.
Consistently over the years and across institutions, he has been rated as an effective teacher and/or trainer by thousands of students at Graduate, Postgraduate and Doctoral levels and Corporate executives belonging to different organizational echelons and cultures. DR. Kumar has developed several teaching materials that include broadcast-quality management educational films in Video format. His innovative teaching methods as well as pioneering interventions as the Chairperson: Placements IIMB – have been documented in national and international media that includes CNBC and BBC.
DR. Kumar held Consulting assignments with many Governmental institutions, Public and Private sector organizations, and Multinational companies. The wide range of the client list denotes his diverse consulting expertise. He has contributed to Institution building and Corporate Governance by being on the board of many governing bodies of institutions: Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, All India Board of Management Studies (AICTE), National Institute of Financial Management, TA Pai Management Institute, National Institute of Administrative Research, NALSAR University, IFIM Business School, to mention a few.
DR. Kumar has been on several journals’ editorial boards that include International Journal of Leadership Education, UK and holds membership with American Psychological Association and Academy of Management, USA. He is currently researching on Strategic Institution Building, Transferable Leadership, Managing on the Edge and Organizational Transformation.
On 31st May 2019, due to superannuation DR. Kumar demitted his office at IIMB. Currently he holds office of Honorary Professor at School of Management Studies, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad.
Unprecedented Aspects: Ravi Kumar, Ex IIMB
- Studied at CBM High School, South India’s second Mission High School estd. 1836 (first one was established in Coimbatore in 1831 as London Mission high School & Union High School; subsequently known as Church of South India Boys Higher Secondary School)
- Graduated in Commerce from Mrs. A V N College, Visakhapatnam established in 1860 in the form of a school and then became Hindu College in the year 1878; Late Sir C V Raman is a co-alumnus
- After B. Com, doing Master’s in Psychology and Parapsychology 1977
- Studying Panic Behavior (created by Print Media, Andhra Pradesh) – Psychological Study on Skylab Scare… 1979
- Researching in Superstitious Behaviors – Behavioral Patterns due to Total Solar Eclipse, Applied Psychology Cell, Osmania University, 1980
- Psychological Consulting from Indian University Department – Applied Psychology Cell, Osmania University — with APPDDC, Hyderabad for Competency Mapping and Matching with Job demands to enhance employee performance, 1980
- Part of the team that has brought out an Academic Journal, “Managerial Psychology” that has been considered for inclusion by Psychological Abstracts, USA, 1980
- First doctorate in Organizational Behavior, 1981; First full-time student to receive doctoral degree from Department of Psychology and Parapsychology, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam
- Part of the team that has established first Digital Video Classroom (U-matic tape) and 16 channel Special Effects Generator online editing Console, 1984
- Sole member from Psychology in the interdisciplinary team that developed First Digital Video Cases (18) on Science and Technology Entrepreneurs spanning 6 states funded by Dept. of Science & Technology, GOI, NISIET (now NIMSME), Hyderabad, 1984
- Third Indian and first South Indian to review Doordarshan Programmes in Print Media: Udayam, Hyderabad 1985
- One of the very few and the FIRST to hold membership from India in both American Psychological Association and Academy of Management, USA, since 1985
- First Doctoral Alumnus of Andhra University to join as faculty at IIMB and any IIM
- Leveraging Contemporary Technology — Carrying out Video conferencing through Internet legally (Campus placements IIMB in 1992) connecting IIMB with Unisys H.Q., Philadelphia, USA
- Significant role in establishing India’s First ATM on Campus Citibank, 1993
- At a young age, Member of several apex decision making and policy formulating bodies – Board of Governors/ Advisory Board/ General Council of many national level institutes that include IIMB, 1997)
- Developing Digital Format Educational Movies (professional video format) for teaching themes in Organizational Behavior employing Video, Audio and Text (VAT) –Post Graduate Management Program “Empower”: Management Program of 100 session by B-School, 1998
- First academic (from IIMs) to be featured on BBC for the work done on Gender Diversity, 1999 First academician from IIM community to be part of apex body (Management Board) of AICTE, MHRD, GOI, 2007
- Expert Member – Psychology, UPSC reforms Committee 2001
- Longitudinal Research (along with others) on MBA students (from IIMs and other prominent institutes across the country) that has resulted in publication by Sage, “Developing Business Leaders: What B-Schools do not teach” by Sage India, 2008
- Case Research on Power Trading Corporation resulting in a book Organizational Growth and Success which has been released by then Cabinet Minister of Power, GOI, – this unpriced book is being used at many business schools across India as well as abroad, 2009 with a shared copyright to use any part of it for classroom discussions.
- First among IIM professors to teach MBA Students of Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, 2018
- First among IIM professors to become “Honorary Professor at School of Management Studies” at Central University (University of Hyderabad)