Mohan Subramaniam

Mohan Subramaniam focuses on the digital transformation of incumbent industrial firms and new sources of competitive advantage in the digital age. He is a recognized thought leader in digital strategy and has helped senior executives in several companies find new sources of value and growth for their companies when competing with data within emerging digital ecosystems.

He outlines his thinking in his 2022 book The Future of Competitive Strategy: Unleashing the Power of Data and Digital Ecosystems which describes a new paradigm for competitive strategy anchored on data and digital ecosystems and the game-changing role of digital technologies in the modern economy. He says legacy firms have for decades anchored their competitive strategy on products and industry characteristics, but these approaches are now becoming outdated. The book therefore explains how legacy firms can harness their existing assets and infrastructure and traditional strengths to leverage the new and explosive power of data, by thoughtfully applying and emulating the best practices of digital titans such as Amazon and Google.

Subramaniam has worked with a wide range of companies in Europe (including Telekom Austria and Voestalpine Steel), the United States (General Motors, Avantor Corporation, Hamilton Sunstrand) and India (Dell Corporation, HP Enterprises, Honeywell, PepsiCo, Cognizant, Tata Consulting Services, Infosys, HCL and Aditya Birla Group, among others).

His articles regularly appear in Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. He has also published articles in several leading academic journals such as the Strategic Management Journal, the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management and the Journal of International Business Studies, and his research has been recognized by awards from the Strategic Management Society, McKinsey Corporation, Academy of Management, Academy of International Business and the Decision Sciences Institute.

Subramaniam serves as a member of the editorial advisory board of MIT Sloan Management Review and he is an ad hoc reviewer for the Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, Organization Science, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Product Innovation Management, and Information Systems Research.

Before joining IMD in August 2022, he was an Associate Professor of Strategic Management at the Carroll School of Management in Boston College. He was previously Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut and a Lecturer at Boston University. He was also a visiting faculty member at IMD between 2016 and 2018.

Selected publications

The Future of Competitive Strategy: Unleashing the Power of Data in Digital Ecosystems (MIT Press, 2022)

How smart products create connected customers (MIT Sloan Management Review, 2022)

Is your company squandering digital opportunities? (Harvard Business Review, 2022)

The four tiers of digital transformation (Harvard Business Review, 2021)

Are you using the right data for your digital transformation? (Harvard Business Review, 2021)

Learning from Chinese digital disruptors (MIT Sloan Management Review, 2019)

IBM’s new battle in the cloud (MIT Sloan Management Review, 2018)

The next battle in antitrust will be about whether one company knows everything about you (Harvard Business Review, 2017)

Mass customization and the do-it-yourself supply chain (MIT Sloan Management Review, 2016)

The strategic value of APIs (Harvard Business Review, 2015)

Recognition

Temple University/Academy of International Business Best Paper Award (2008)

Academy of Management Doug Nigh Memorial Best Paper Award (2004)

Decision Sciences Institute Best Theoretical/Empirical Paper Prize (2004)

Education

Bachelor of Technology (Electrical Engineering)

University of Baroda, India

MS

University of Baroda, India

MBA

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

DBA (Management Policy)

Boston University School of Management