Prof. Arvind Sahay on Oct 17 assumed the charge as the Director of MDI Gurgaon succeeding Prof. Sangeeta S. Bhardwaj, who was acting as director since February this year.
Prior to this new role, 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.
Prof. Sahay’s 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.
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.
