Sathyanarayanan R (Sathya Ram) is a marketing expert with over 25 years of industry and academic experience, having worked in organisations such as BIM, CII, and CBS, as well as European Union Global projects, including the Economic Cross-Cultural Programme (ECCP). Sathya Ram considers himself a motivator and enjoys being a catalyst for vibrant, young minds, motivating them towards excellence in their areas of strength.
Before joining IFMR GSB, Sathya Ram worked with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as the Head of Education Initiatives and was actively involved in setting up an Education Practice in the southern region to promote enhanced industry-institute interaction and also spearheaded the Industry Bridge project with IIT Madras. He was also involved in the conceptual foundation for a government-backed Incubator in Chennai.
Sathya Ram has extensive experience in teaching PG-level marketing courses and providing corporate training through MDPs and consulting assignments in India and abroad, particularly in Finland, Singapore, and Sri Lanka. He has trained executives from various companies, including Toshiba, L&T, FLEX, CEAT Sri Lanka, Escorts, GATI, BHEL, Sutherland, Indian Railways, India Post, and LIC. He was also running a consulting practice under the brand Purple Ring.
As an invited expert, Sathya Ram effectively serves as a sounding board in the strategy and marketing meetings of several companies, and also undertakes long-term consulting assignments.
Sathya Ram is an invited Member of the CII Southern Region Core Group on higher education policy and a member of the Expert Committee of the Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce. Sathya Ram is also a Gold medalist in marketing and a University Grants Commission NET-JRF holder. A winner of London Business School’s Case Development Initiative in 2009 and the AIMA-ICRC case writing competition in 2022.
Sathya Ram was instrumental in winning three awards for the IFMR Graduate School of Business.
(1) Gold Award for the case study on IFMR’s research eco-system in the 7th Indian Management Conclave (IMC) held at IIM Ahmedabad,
(2) ASSOCHAM’s Award for Best Institute Serving Social Cause – CSR,
(3) MMA award for Managerial Excellence in the Education Institutions category.
He is also a recipient of the Dewang Mehta Award for Best Teacher in Marketing and the Impact Best Professor award. Sathya Ram regularly blogs on marketing and other business-related issues. He periodically contributes popular articles to reputed newspapers, such as The Hindu Business Line.
Other Publications
- Published the article, “The digital-physical nexus: How brands are blending real and virtual worlds” as a part of the Global Report on State of the Brand 2025. https://www.stateofthebrand.org/
- IFMR’s Institutional Leadership Efforts in Strengthening the IFMR Research Eco-System, Gold-award-winning Case Study presented in the 7th Indian Management Conclave at IIM Ahmedabad
- Strengthening Financial Engineering Curriculum of IFMR for Present, Emerging and Futuristic Industry Needs, Grand Finale Case Study presented in the 8th Indian Management Conclave at IIM Lucknow.
- Chapter on “Business Scaling Up” in the “CII Entrepreneur’s Handbook”, Link: http://bit.ly/CIIhandbook
Media Quotes
Conference Presentations and Guest Speaker Sessions
- Presented the case study, “Reimagining India’s Identity on a Global Stage – The G20 Presidency”, at the Indian Institute of Management, Nagpur – Ivey International case conference on 21-22 December 2024.
- Presented the case study, “Marketing and Public administration challenges of Overtourism – The Case of Amsterdam and pointers for India”, at the National Conference organized by the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), New Delhi, on September 30, 2024.
- Presented the paper “Design Thinking View on an affordable public bike-sharing project from India” at the prestigious
- Academic Design Management Conference- ADMC 2024 held at TU Delft, Netherlands, on 6 and 7 August 2024.
- Presented the paper, “From hopelessness to hope through immersive storytelling– Instances from Indic texts and practices” in the International Conclave on Globalizing Indian Thought – GIT 2023, organized by IIM Kozhikode at Mysore on 14, 15, 16 December 2023.
- Ivey-Canada Invitation: Sathya Ram gave a detailed talk on the Purpose, Permanence, and Sustainability teaching intervention during the NBS Global webinar on March 19, 2024. He was invited by the Network for Business Sustainability (NBS), powered by the Centre for Building Sustainable Value at the Ivey Business School at Western University, to present this as part of the Teaching Climate Change in Business Schools Virtual Event Series.
- UNOM Invitation: The UGC and the University of Madras jointly organized a two-week online refresher course for faculty members from various colleges in Tamil Nadu and other states, specializing in commerce and management. On September 17, 2024, Prof Sathya Ram was invited to address the participants in this refresher course with the overarching theme “Staying Ahead of the Curve: Understanding Emerging Markets and Global Trends.
- Common Purpose Invitation: Common Purpose LLC, a Global enterprise providing transformative leadership experiences to clients, invited Prof. Sathya Ram to conduct a small group conversation as part of their interventions for BNP Paribas on October 24, 2024, in Chennai.
- LIBA invitation: Sathya Ram conducted the Workshop on the Case Method during the International Conference on Marketing Research 2024 (ICMR’24), organized by the Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA) in partnership with the Albers School of Business, Seattle University, USA, on March 15, 2024.
- SV University Invitation: Prof Sathya Ram gave a talk on “Marketing Success Case Studies” in the organic products industry during the national webinar on “Marketing Dilemmas and Triumphs in the Organic Products Industry: A Few Indian Perspectives” organized by Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, on April 27, 2024.
- BusinessWorld invitation: Was invited by Businessworld, one of India’s largest and most respected business magazines, to share expert views in the panel discussion on “Finding the University of your dreams” during the BW Education 6th Annual Higher Education conference held at Chennai on April 19, 2023.
- Prof. Sathya Ram was invited by the Ministry of Finance-governed National Academy of Direct Taxes (NADT, Nagpur) to handle a special panel discussion on Online learning for Deputy/Assistant Commissioners, Directors, and Senior Training Officers of the Income Tax Department in March 2023.
- At a special invitation, Prof. Sathya Ram conducted the “Marketing Masterclass” for over 40 CEOs of NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission incubators from around the country during the All India AIM Incubators Conclave held in Puducherry in September 2022.
- Prof Sathya Ram was invited by the Additional Director General (Training), National Academy of Direct Taxes, Nagpur, to handle training on “Challenges and best practices in online method of teaching” for their Officers as a part of the All India Special Course for Trainers of NADT & Regional Campuses/MSTUs during July 2022
- Prof Sathya Ram was invited as a Special session speaker on brand management during the AIC-PEC FOUNDATION “Start-up Rendezvous” in July 2022.
- Madras School of Economics invited Prof Sathya Ram to address the new batch of PGDM students on August 3, 2022, and he gave a talk on the topic “A Quick Trip on the Marketing Highway”
- Prof. Sathya Ram handled the session on “Branding in a New Tech Era” in CII-TNTDPC’s “The Changing Face of Marketing – Impact of New Technologies” series, hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as part of their MarTech Webinars 2020.
- Prof Sathya was invited as a keynote speaker in the Gemba Connect Programme on Employer branding (2019)
- Stella Maris College, Chennai, invited Prof Sathya Ram and gave a talk titled “Alice in the Brand-land” covering Consumer Behaviour issues on August 28, 2018
Research IDs
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7702-0574
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=6Ozq7iAAAAAJ&hl=en
Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sathyanarayanan-Ramachandran
Sathya Ram brings an invaluable strategic perspective to the boardroom. He is a very effective sounding board. Sathya serves as a trusted advisor, actively participating in and shaping the strategies and marketing initiatives of several organisations. Moreover, Sathya Ram’s commitment extends to long-term consulting partnerships, offering a wealth of knowledge and expertise for sustainable growth and success.
Functional Expertise
- Marketing & Strategy, Brand Management, Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communication, Cross-Cultural Marketing, Design-driven Marketing
- Higher Education, Case writing, Storytelling
- Award-winning case study writer
- Trained executives from Toshiba, L&T, Flex, Waycool, CEAT Sri Lanka, Escorts, GATI, BHEL, Indian Railways, Sutherland, India Post, LIC, etc, with excellent industry feedback
Certifications and training attended
- Sustainable High-end Tourism from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona through Coursera. (2024)
- Sustainable Fashion from Copenhagen Business School (2020)
- Design Strategy, Innovation and Opportunity Mapping from National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad (2016)
- ISB workshop on Marketing Engineering conducted by Prof Gary Lilien, Penn State University (2010)
- Decisions 2003 summer school at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
