Rama Bijapurkar is one of India’s most respected thought leaders on market strategy and India’s Consumer Economy. She is also considered to be a most insightful commentator on the social and cultural changes that are transforming India. She has her own consulting practice and works across a range of sectors and organizations – global and domestic, commercial and not for profit as well as quasi-government. She describes her work as bringing market and Customer Centricity to business strategy development.
Rama’s work experience has been in market research and strategy consulting and includes leadership positions with McKinsey & Company, MARG (now AC Nielsen India), and full time consulting with Hindustan Lever (now Hindustan Unilever India).
In addition to her consulting practice, she has a deep commitment and experience to match, in raising the bar on corporate governance standards in India, and serves or has served as an independent director on the boards of several of India’s blue chip companies. These include Bharat Petroleum, Axis Bank, Godrej Consumer Products, CRISIL, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Mahindra and Mahindra Financial services, Titan Industries, Redington Gulf FZE etc. She served on the Infosys board from March, 2001, until she resigned in 2010. When she resigned, Rama was the only woman on the board.
She is also a member of the governing council of the Banking Codes and Standards Board of India (set up by the banking regulator), the Insurance Information Board (by the insurance regulator), and is a member of the Eminent Person Advisory Group of the Competition Commission of India She is closely involved with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM A), her alma mater, where she has been a regular visiting faculty and also serves on its board of governors. Rama is an influential commentator in the Indian media on issues relating to her fields of work.
She is the author of “We are like that only: Understanding the Logic of Consumer India” (Penguin, International English and Mandarin edition titled “Winning in the Indian Market, Wiley), globally considered to be the most definitive book on Consumer India. More recently, she has published its sequel “A Never – Before World: Tracking the Evolution of Consumer India”. Her latest book, “Customer in the boardroom? Crafting Customer – Based Business Strategy” (Sage), is based on her teaching and consulting experience.