Global & Digital Strategy Expert | Vinod Jain

Global Meets Digital

With mini case studies and over 100 company examples, Global Meets Digital covers cutting-edge issues like the paradox of globalization, digital disruption, disruptive business models, exponential technologies, Internet of Things, competition in digital markets, winner-take-all market dynamics, Industry 4.0, how to innovate, and digital strategies for both B2C and B2B contexts.

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Vinod Jain is an expert in global and digital strategy, award-winning professor, Fulbright Scholar, and author of an MBA textbook on Global Strategy. His next strategy book, Global Meets Digital: Global Strategy for Digital Businesses; Digital Strategy for Global Businesses, was published by Taylor & Francis in June 2023. He taught at the Rutgers Business School, Newark and New Brunswick, and the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park. At Maryland, he was also the Founding Director of the federally funded Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) and Academic Director of Smith School’s Executive MBA program in China. Since leaving Maryland, he has taught in China, Denmark, Finland, Poland, and India as a visiting or term professor. His opinion pieces have appeared in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, Mensa Bulletin, CEO World Magazine, Forbes.com, Authority Magazine, and Economic Times and Mint (India's #1 and #2 business dailies). In the past, he worked as a middle- and senior-level executive with American and British multinationals.

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A Testimonial

“What universities need to do, and I would like to take a moment to credit Dr. Jain, is to create forums for discussion like this. One role that universities have served for thousands of years, since the first university, is to provide a place and space for dialog about important issues – about issues that are vital to the economic wellbeing of our society, to our social wellbeing, to the values that really determine our families and our futures. Universities must continue to engage in these kinds of activities. Dr. Jain, you are to be credited for creating this forum.”

Comments of the former Bowling Green State University President, Dr. Sidney Ribeau, on camera and broadcast on PBS, at the Business Forum designed and chaired by Vinod Jain: Northwest Ohio in the New Millennium: Opportunities and Challenges for Business.

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Speaking

Vinod speaks on a variety of themes related to his areas of interest, namely, strategy, global business, and digital business (broadly defined). Here’s a sample of some of the topics on which he has spoken in the past for associations and corporations.

The Rules and Tools of Digital Business
Entering and competing in Foreign Markets
Industry 4.0: Manufacturing in the Digital Age
How the Industrial IoT Changed Manufacturing
Disruptive Business Models
Digital Strategy for Legacy Businesses
Reinventing Innovation

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Opinion

No, you're the nice guy.

February 2, 2024

I have enjoyed the “Doonesbury” comic strip for a long time. The strip’s creator, Garry Trudeau, has a knack for highlighting the quirks of everyday social and political life in the United States. The Jan. 21 strip was particularly telling.

The strip depicted a caller to a radio show, perhaps former president Donald Trump, who attributed his own unacceptable behavior to others, which psychiatrists call “projection.” Trudeau illustrated Trump’s actions with several examples, such as lying and being a sexual abuser and a fraudster — allegations that Trump leveled against others. This reminded me of an incident in my own life decades ago when I complimented a neighbor with “You are a really nice guy.” He responded to the compliment with a saying in Persian, which translated to something like “I am but a mirror; you are seeing yourself in me.” That’s what projection is all about. Some people attribute to others what is true of themselves.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/02/02/buffalo-bills-mafia-slur-woodrow-wilson-racist/

(See the sixth opinion through this link, with the title, "No, you're the nice guy."y."

A Recent Blog Post

When a Former Prime Minister Became My Graduate Assistant

January 20, 2024

Imagine discovering that your new graduate assistant at Bowling Green State University was none other than a former Prime Minister of Rwanda. This extraordinary situation unfolded during my tenure as Assistant Professor and Director of the International Business Program at BGSU, presenting a unique intersection of academia and international politics. Pierre-Célestin Rwigema, a name that carried weight and controversy, was not just a student in the MBA program but also possibly a fugitive from his country—a most unusual addition to my long teaching career.

Sometime early in the 2001 fall semester, I received a phone call from the Associate Dean that he had a new MBA student to work as my graduate assistant. He also told me that the student was a former Prime Minister of Rwanda, Pierre-Célestin Rwigema. I was initially quite hesitant about Rwigema’s assignment to me. Could a former leader of a nation adapt to the routine tasks of a graduate assistant, like grading exams and photocopying articles for me in the library?

However, the Associate Dean assured me of Rwigema's willingness to fully embrace his role.