About | Vinod Jain | Global & Digital Strategy Expert

ABOUT

Vinod K. Jain

Vinod Jain is an expert in global and digital strategy, award-winning professor, Fulbright Scholar, and author of two strategy books. He received his Ph.D. degree in Strategic Management and International Business from the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland in 1994 and later taught there from 2005 to 2012. 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 UMD, he has taught in China, Denmark, Finland, Poland, and India as a visiting or term professor, and at the Rutgers Business School, Newark and New Brunswick as a Visiting Associate Professor. A Fulbright Scholar and award-winning professor, Vinod has lived and worked in India, United States, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, China, and the Middle East.

Vinod’s MBA textbook Global Strategy: Competing in the Connected Economy was published by Routledge in July 2016 and has been adopted at a few business schools in the U.S. and abroad. 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 is the creator of the PRISM framework of foreign market selection.

He founded and served as the President and CEO of the India-US World Affairs Institute, Inc. for ten years until March 2016, when the Institute ceased operations. It was an autonomous, tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) educational and research organization in Washington D.C. promoting the interests of both India and United States in global business and world affairs. With a high-power board of directors, the Institute hosted a number of thought-leadership events in Washington, D.C., led two business delegations to India, and published a research monograph, How America Benefits from Economic Engagement with India. The, then, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton quoted from the monograph in her comments to the U.S.-India CEO Forum on June 22, 2010. (See the photo gallery for some photos of the Institute's activities).

In the past, Vinod worked in industry for many years with British and American multinationals, including Macmillan Publishers (Vice President), Molins (Manager Coordination), and Coca-Cola (Marketing Research Executive). He has conducted over a hundred executive and academic seminars in Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, India, and the United States, and has been active on many boards and professional and trade associations. His opinion pieces have appeared in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, Mensa Bulletin, CEO World Magazine, Forbes, Authority Magazine, and Economic Times and Mint (India's #1 and #2 business dailies).

In addition to his Ph.D. degree, Vinod has an M.S. in Management from UCLA, and M.S. and B.S. (Honors) in Statistics from the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta.

Memberships

Forbes Business Council (2023)

Academy of Management (Since 1991-92)

Academy of International Business (Since 1991-92)

TiE-DC (Charter Member (2013-2022)

Mensa (Member since 1991)

Boards

India-US World Affairs Institute, Inc. (President, 2006-2016)

Maryland/Washington D.C. District Export Council (2008-2016)

TiE-DC, the Washington D.C. chapter of TiE.org, one of the world's

largest associations of entrepreneurs and CEOs (2018)

Ohio’s IT Alliance (2000-2002)

Toledo Area International Trade Association (1997-2002; President 2000-2002)

Selected Awards and Honors

1. Co-lead for Montgomery County (Maryland) Executive Ike Leggett’s India Business Mission (November 2014).

2. Network of Experts, National Bureau Asian Research, a Seattle, WA; a Washington DC-based nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution researching strategic and policy issues affecting U.S. relations with Asia (April 2014).

3. Non-resident Senior Research Fellow, Skolkovo Institute for Emerging Market Studies, Beijing and Moscow (June 2012 - December 2014). Received a $20,000 research award from Ernst & Young to study innovation and capability building in the IT services industry in India and China.

4. Co-lead for Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley’s Trade Mission to India (November 27 - December 3, 2011).

5. Fulbright Specialist, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (Six Weeks: Nov-Dec 2010).

6. Appointed by the Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce, to serve on Maryland/Washington D.C. District Export Council in January 2008 for four years, and reconfirmed by U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker in January 2014 for another term of 3 years.

7. Received a $10,000 personal research grant from the IBM Center for the Business of Government to develop a State Innovation Index for the 50 states in the United States (2007-08).

8. Received and managed five competitive grants from the U.S. Department of Education, with a total budget of over four million dollars, including matching funds (1998-2009).

9. Fulbright Scholar and Professor, Polish-American Management Center, University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland, January-April 2005.

10. Received McGraw-Hill/Irwin Best Symposium Award. Designed and chaired the symposium, “Curriculum and program internationalization: Looking backward – looking forward!”, at the annual international annual conference of the Academy of Management, Honolulu, HI (August 7-10, 2005).

11. Received a special citation from Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich honoring me for the work I did to promote international understanding with people from different parts of the world (April 2004).

12. Received Ohio Governor’s “E” Award for Excellence in Exporting for Bowling Green State University for services provided to Ohio’s exporting companies (July 2001).

13. Received the James R. Good Endowment Scholar award at BGSU to study of “knowledge management in the global automotive industry”; fieldwork carried out in France, Germany, Switzerland, and the U.S. (2000).

14. Received 4.00 GPA in the Ph.D. program (Major and Minor fields) at the University of Maryland, College Park (1990-1994).

15. Krowe Excellence in Teaching Award, University of Maryland, School of Business, 1993.

16. Earned Mensa membership through examination (1990).

Volunteer

Instructor, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, George Mason University, 2016-Present

Review Panel: Maryland Industrial Partnerships Grant Program, 2008-2016

Review Panel: U.S. Department of Education, CIBER Grant Program, 2001

Selected Testimonials

“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.”

- Dr. Sidney Ribeau, President, Bowling Green State University (Global Business Forum, “Northwest Ohio in the New Millennium: Opportunities and Challenges for Business”), November 1999

“This type of thinking needs to be accepted by ALL. I think out children need to be exposed to this Reality!”

- Feedback from a participant at Bell Helicopter Textron, Fort Worth, TX after Vinod Jain’s presentation about “Career Strategies for the Next Millennium”, February 12, 1996

“The professor was very knowledgeable and I very much respected his expertise in the field while in class. Learning by way of case study is the best way to learn this type of material, and the professor focused concepts as they apply to case study very well.”

- Written comment of an MBA student in the Global Management Strategy course taught by Vinod Jain at Rutgers Business School, Newark, Summer 2017

‘Professor Jain is fantastic. His depth of understanding in the field of international business has really opened my eyes to what this major and career path entails. I have never been so interested in a course or been so enthusiastic about a professor, but I believe Professor Jain takes this course to a whole new level. The DC location was fantastic and I hope I can find courses with Professor Jain and/or in DC in the future.”

-Written comment of an undergraduate student in the International Business Bootcamp course taught by Vinod Jain at Smith School’s Washington D.C. campus, May 24-28, 2010:

“Our best American professor.”

- Comment of students (jointly) in the Executive MBA program, University of Lodz, Poland (program offered in association with the Smith School, University of Maryland, College Park), April 2005

Testimonials