Ajay Bhalla
Ajay Bhalla BCom, MBA, PhD, is Professor of Global Innovation Management at Cass Business School, City University London, a Visiting Scholar at Indian School of Business and an Associate Director at Stratevolve. He is a leading expert in two broad areas: How firms consecrate value using global resources? and How firms can build better organization alignment to capture value?
Combining his expertise in the field of 'strategy' and 'India', Ajay was the first academic in Europe to introduce the 'India Strategy' executive education course on the Cass MBA programme. In 2005, he was the first academic in Europe to introduce the 'Global Outsourcing Strategy' specialism on the Executive MBA programme. He is also one of the first academics who combines his teaching on Global Outsourcing course with a field trip to offshoring centres of many firms such as Dell, Deutsche, and Motorola located in India. He has won several awards for his research and teaching, and works closely with managers to execute thought leadership.
Through his research and advisory work with senior managers on how they can perfect their offshoring strategy, he has gained intimate knowledge of the challenges firms face when offshoring.He has worked with senior executives from SAP AG, the world's largest business software firm, on a project involving how the firm could generate better innovation through globally distributed development across 9 offshoring centres of excellence. He has also worked closely with senior management of Wipro Technologies to outline the DNA of Wipro Consulting Services. Other clients have included Ernst & Young, and International Chambers of Commerce where he worked on counterfeiting and intellectual property issues faced by global firms.
He has advised executives in large global 500 firms on issues such as best practices in establishing offshore centres of excellence for high value added functions; how to promote learning from vendor relationships; best practices to follow when launching new ventures in the Indian market; how to create and appropriate value in IP sensitive environments across the value chain.
During his engagements he uses proprietary tools he has developed during his work with numerous clients in software, professional services, and public services sectors.
Education
Ajay holds a PhD in strategic management from Nottingham Business School, and postgraduate diploma in management from Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden.
Teaching
His teaching has won number of awards. He is winner of the 2009 Research Award at Cass Business School, as well as two prestigious City University Teaching Awards - the 2007 City University Teaching Award for teaching on an MBA programme and the 2008 Cass Business School Teaching Award for his teaching on Masters programmes. He holds a post-graduate diploma in International Teaching from the Stockholm School of Economics.
He currently teaches on Cass MBA and Executive courses and leads the 'India Strategy' elective at MBA level. The 5 day intensive workshop involves combining in-class teaching with field trips involving visiting multinationals in India to impart first hand knowledge on the intricacies of doing business in India. His other courses also involve a high degree of international component 'Global Outsourcing Strategy' which is offered as a specialist course on both the Cass MBA and Masters programme.
Research
He has published in the Journal of Operations Management, Business Horizons, European Management Journal, Small Business Economics, Strategic Change, Journal of Business Strategy, and International Small Business Journal . He is on the editorial board of International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets and Management Online Review. In 2008, he won a Highly Commended Award for his research from Emerald.
He (with Joseph Lampel) has received two research grants from NESTA. His research has also been funded by International Chamber of Commerce and many private organisations.
His research papers include:
- Lampel, J. and Bhalla, A. (2008). Embracing realism and recognising choice in IT offshoring initiatives. Business Horizons, 51(5), 429-440.
- Bhalla, A, M.Sodhi and Byung G. Son (2008) Is More IT Offshoring Better? An Exploratory Study of Western Companies Offshoring to South East Asia, Journal of Operations Management., Vol 26 (2) Pages 322-335. Elsevier
- Stace, D. and Bhalla, A. (2008). Sustaining the Connective Tissue of Customer Relationships when offshoring. Strategic Change. 17 (4), 57-68. Wiley.
- Bhalla A. (2008) Harnessing Knowledge Capabilities in Emerging Markets: Offshoring and Mac & Company Experience. Emerging Markets (eds: Satyendra Singh) MacMillan
- Bhalla Ajay, J. Lampel, S.Henderson,D. Watkins (2008), 'Exploring Alternative Strategic Management Paradigms in High-Growth Family Firms', Small Business Economics, 32(1), p. 77-94
- Bhalla A., S. Burdon and J. Chelliah (2009 Forthcoming), 'Structuring Enduring Strategic Alliances:The Case of Shell Australia and Transfield Services', Journal of Business Strategy.
- Lampel J, Bhalla, Ajay & Jha, Pushkar (2007), 'BASCAP Counterfeiting & Piracy Index'; sponsored by: International Chambers of Commerce (ICC), Paris.
- Lampel, J. and Bhalla A. (2007) The Role of Status-Seeking in Online Communities: Giving the Gift of Experience. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13(1) (eds: Susan Herring) Indiana University
- Lampel, J. and Bhalla A (2007) Let's Get Natural: The Discourse of Community and the Problem of Transferring Practices in Knowledge Management. Management Decision 45 (7) Emerald* Winner of Best Paper Award from Emerald.
- Bhalla, A, Henderson, S. and Watkins, D. (2006) A Multiparadigmatic Perspective of Strategy: A Case Study of Family Firm, International Small Business Journal. Sage
- Lampel J, Bhalla, Ajay & Jha, Pushkar (2006), 'Back to the Digital Future: The Role of Copyrights in Sustaining Creativity and Diversity in the Music Industry'.
- Burdon, S. and Bhalla, A (2005) Lessons from the untold success story: Outsourcing Engineering and Facilities Management, European Management Journal. October Issue.
- Bhalla A, David Watkins, and Steven Henderson (2004) The Origins and Lessons of Entrepreneurial Achievement: A Multi-Paradigm Perspective via the Case Method Entrepreneurship Research in Europe: Outcomes and Perspectives- (eds: A. Fayolle, P. Kyrö, and J. Ulijn) Cheltenham, Edward Elgar
Keynote Speeches
He is often sought as a keynote speaker for his expertise.
Recent speeches include:
- November 2008: 'Unlocking your Growth= [In India + From India]', Doing Business in India. Cass Business School, London
- October 2008: ' Offshoring 3.0: Energizing Innovation to Outperform' PricewaterhouseCoopers, London
International Conferences
He has presented the following papers at selected international conferences:
- Lampel, J. and Bhalla, A (2008)-Falling Forward: Exploring evolution of offshoring in a telecommunication firm, Annual Academy of Management Conference, Anaheim, USA.
- Lampel, J., Bhalla, A. and Jha, P. (2008) The Failings of Simplicity: Evidence from Design Contests. Annual Academy of Management Conference, Anaheim, USA.
- Lampel, J and Bhalla, A. (2008)-Living with Offshoring: Offshoring and the evolution of organizational configurations, Conference on Offshoring & Outsourcing: The Organizational and Geographical Relocation of High-Value Company Functions, Special Issue: Journal of Management Studies, at SDA Bocconi in Milan, April 23–24, 2008
- Lampel, J., Bhalla, A. and Jha, P. (2008) Intellectual Property Rights and Industry Evolution: The Case of the Recorded Music Industry. In: The Creative Industries and Intellectual Property: DIME International Conference May, London
- Lampel, J. and Bhalla, A. (2007)- Embracing Realism and Structuring Choices in Offshoring, EGOS Colloquium, Sub-Theme 39, University of Vienna, Austria.
- Lampel, J. and Bhalla, A. (2007) - More IT offshoring does not matter: Selecting Drivers and Models in Global 500 firms. First Annual Research Conference on Offshoring, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, USA.
- Bhalla, A and Henderson, S. (2006)- Becoming Misrepresentations in Strategy and Time. Paper presented at 2006 Annual Academy of Management Conference, Atlanta, USA.
- Bhalla A., Henderson, S. and Watkins, D. (2006) Exploring Alternative Strategic Management Paradigms in High-Growth Family Firms. Paper presented at 2006 Annual Academy of Management Conference, Atlanta, USA.
- Lampel, J. and Bhalla, A. (2005) – The Gift Paradox: Presenting of self in online virtual communities. Paper presented at 2005 European Group of Organizational Studies, Berlin
- Lampel, J. and Bhalla, A. (2004) - Let's Get Natural: Communities of Practice and Discourse of Spontaneous Sharing in Knowledge Management. Paper presented at 2004 European Conference on Organizational Knowledge, Learning and Capabilities, Innsbruck, Austria
- Bhalla, A. and Holtham, C. (2004) - The organizational jigsaw: opportunities for collaborative learning Paper presented at 2004 European Group for Organization Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, Ljubljana.
- Bhalla, A., Henderson, S. and Watkins, D. (2003). The Origins and Lessons of Entrepreneurial Achievement: a Multi-Paradigm Perspective via the Case Method. Paper presented at 2003 Annual Academy of Management Conference, Seattle, USA.
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