Dubai, United Arab Emirates
From my base first in Hong Kong, India and now Dubai, I oversee Roland Berger’s multiple award-winning management magazine, Think:Act. I have a keen interest in management thought. Over a career spanning over two decades, I have interviewed several thought leaders like C.K. Prahalad, Michael Porter, Philip Kotler, Clayton Christensen, Henry Mintzberg, Henry Chesbrough, Marshall Goldsmith and Gary Hamel, and Nobel Prize winners John Nash and Amartya Sen. Before coming to Hong Kong, I spent 4.5 years in Beijing as editor of a China-focused business and management publication. China taught me many things, most of all it gave me a refreshing take on business. Prior to that, I was an International Visiting Scholar at the University of California Berkeley. There, I explored how publications need to evolve with changes in technology and reader habits, and business journalism in Silicon Valley. I was also awarded a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation fellowship as part of the Africa Reporting Project to write about coffee and climate change in Uganda, Africa. I have worked with some of India’s best known publications such as Forbes India, The Times of India and Businessworld. In 2010, I received the Polestar Award for Excellence in IT and Business Journalism. I have researched and edited books like Leading with Conviction (Jossey-Bass) by Shalom Saada Saar and Michael Hargrove, and Culture of the Sepulchre (Penguin India) by Madanjeet Singh. The second book is closely linked to my family’s personal history in East Africa.
I have been heading Think:Act, Roland Berger’s magazine for top executives, since 2016. Think:Act, which we like to call a "coffee-table business magazine", delivers unorthodox views into current and upcoming trends in management and pioneering business topics. It features exclusive interviews with decision-makers and thought leaders from across the world. Think:Act reaches around 30,000 select top managers and decision-makers in the fields of business, politics and media around the world and has editions in English, German and Chinese. The magazine has featured interviews with business leaders like Jack Welch (Former CEO, General Electric), Ed Catmull (co-founder, Pixar), Sebastian Thrun (CEO, Kitty Hawk and co-founder, Udacity), Daniel Ek (CEO, Spotify), Tony Fadell (co-creator of the iPod and the iPhone), etc. Thought leaders featured include Jim Collins, Clayton Christensen, Hal Gregersen, Vinton Cerf, Linda Hill, Chris Anderson, Robert Cialdini, Sherry Turkle, Dan Ariely, Jennifer Doudna, Robert Shiller, Steven Pinker, Don Tapscott, etc. Think:Act has won multiple awards in recent times: • Society of Publication Designers (Bronze 2023) • Best of Content Marketing Awards (Silver 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022. Gold 2018, 2021), BCM Grand Prix (2021) • Art Director’s Club Award (2022). • International Creative Media Award Best of Decade (2021), Best of Show (2019), Gold (2019, 2020, 2021), Silver (2022). • Fox Awards (Gold in 2021, 2022) • European Content Marketing Award (2021)
* Headed the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business' English language business publications that focused on business in China. Editor of CKGSB Knowledge, the research and knowledge print magazine as well as website * Revamped the school’s quarterly China business magazine from a school news publication to a serious and independent publication about business in China. Focused on creating original content, ramped up page count and raised the bar in terms of content and design. * Frequently interviewed Chinese business leaders, global CEOs and thought leaders. Interviewed people like Zhang Ruimin, CEO, Haier, Francis Hu, COO, 3M China, Gang Yu, CEO, Yihaodian, Jennifer Li, CFO, Baidu, Brian Gallagher, CEO, United Way, Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook, Andrew Rashbass, CEO, Thomson Reuters, Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, CEO, E.L. Rothschild, Chris Stibbs, CEO, The Economist, Open Innovation proponent Henry Chesbrough, marketing guru Philip Kotler, The Art of Choosing author Sheena Iyengar, Good to Great author Jim Collins, strategy guru Gary Hamel, etc. * Recruited and managed a team of writers for CKGSB Knowledge * Managed the school's digital studio and multimedia content generation * Managed external content promotion and republishing tie-ups with international media * Acquired publishing licence * Handled magazine distribution * Increased magazine print run from 7,000 to 14,000 copies in 2 years
Wrote for former BusinessWeek editor John Byrne’s website PoetsandQuants.com and its soon-to-be-launched affiliated website on management ideas. Contributed articles on business education, executive education and thought leader interviews with people such as ‘Open Innovation’ guru Henry Chesbrough, change management expert John Kotter, organizational issues and leadership experts Jeffrey Pfeffer, Tereasa Amabile and Michael Useem, among others. Some of these articles were syndicated to Fortune.com.
Part of a study program for mid-career journalists from around the world. Undertook advanced courses in business reporting and entrepreneurial journalism. Also got a Fellowship from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the Africa Reporting Project. Travelled to Uganda (Africa) to report on climate change and agriculture.
Special Correspondent with Forbes India, the Indian edition of Forbes magazine launched in collaboration with the Network 18 group. I was part of the original launch team. * Among other things, I wrote on multinational companies in India, how MNCs were changing their strategies for China and India, the scramble for business in Africa, social innovation, entrepreneurship, management ideas, executive education and India’s evolving education policy. * Launched The Daily Sabbatical, a specialist web section on management research. (http://forbesindia.com/thedailysabbatical/) * Engineered collaborations with entities like Thinkers 50. * Interviewed people like GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, Bottom of the Pyramid proponent C.K. Prahalad and Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen. * Joint winner of the 12th Polestar Award for Excellence in IT and Business Journalism.