Dr. Swapnil Sahoo.
I research how organisations — from young ventures to multi-generational family firms — build resourcefulness under constraint, and how AI is reshaping the way we teach strategy. Faculty at Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon; Ph.D. from XLRI Jamshedpur.
17 years across industry & academia
Great Lakes Gurgaon, XLRI Jamshedpur, XIMB, Wipro, Accenture, Cognizant, Mahindra, 42Gears Mobility
Currently
Gurgaon, India
Years experience
Conference presentations
Lives reached / yr (Karma Yoga)
Karmabhoomis (field sites)
Active research streams
01 / About
A short bio.
I hold a Ph.D. from XLRI Jamshedpur, specialising in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and currently serve as Assistant Professor of Strategy at Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon — an AACSB- and AMBA-accredited institution. My role spans academic programming, experiential learning design, social-impact initiatives, and institutional strategy.
Before academia, I spent 17 years in senior strategic roles across Wipro, Accenture, Cognizant and Mahindra, most recently as Global Partnership Head at 42Gears Mobility, building C-suite relationships across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. That dual lens — corporate operator and academic researcher — shapes how I teach and how I write.
My research asks a deceptively simple question: how do organisations do more with less, and what makes that capability endure? The answer takes me through frugal innovation, jugaad, bricolage, effectuation, and the dynamic capabilities of family firms and neurodiverse teams.
Education
- Ph.D. · XLRI Jamshedpur
- MBA (Finance & Marketing) · XIMB
- B.Tech (Electronics & Telecom) · Utkal University (ITER)
At a glance
- Assistant Professor · GLIM Gurgaon
- PhD supervisor · Strategy & Entrepreneurship
- Best Paper · IIM Kashipur (MERC 2023)
- Speaker · AOM 2025 · BAM 2025
02 / Research agenda
Doing more with less.
Four interlocking streams that share one question: how organisations turn constraint into capability.
Doctoral dissertation · XLRI Jamshedpur
Entrepreneurial Resourcefulness in Resource-Constrained Environments
The intellectual core of my current programme: a series of 2025 papers presented at AOM Copenhagen and BAM Kent draws from this work.
Entrepreneurial Resourcefulness
Conceptualising and measuring how founders and family firms mobilise scarce resources — bridging bricolage, effectuation, and dynamic-capabilities perspectives.
Neurodiversity & Dynamic Capabilities
How cognitively diverse teams sense, seize, and reconfigure — including the "spiky profile" in unified theories of entrepreneurship (BAM 2025).
Frugal Innovation, Jugaad & Bricolage
The grammar of constrained creativity in emerging markets — institutional voids, family entrepreneurship, and how penurious environments shape capability building.
Effectuation & Family Business Dynamics
Sustainable innovation, governance, and trust in multi-generational family enterprises — with growing attention to AI adoption and succession.
03 / Selected publications
In print.
Peer-reviewed journals, Springer book chapters, teaching cases, and signed essays in the national press. Click any item for the source record.
Entrepreneurship Under Constraint: How Bricolage Transitions into Effectuation in Family Businesses
with Munish Thakur · Academy of Management Proceedings
Evaluating the Efficiency of Van Dhan Yojana Using DEA: Strategic Insights for Tribal Development
with N. Mishra & N. Mishra · International Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies
Impact of Institutional Pressures and Security on Blockchain Technology Adoption and Organizational Performance: An Empirical Study
The Journal of Technology Transfer · Springer
An Overview of Ethics and the Indian Philosophy
In: Applied Ethics and Rationality (SAPERE, Vol. 74) · Springer · ed. Kuruvilla Pandikattu
Pulling the Chariot Together: Jagannath, Collective Spirituality, and the Future of Inclusive Organizations
In: Inclusive Spirituality and Ethical Leadership · Spirituality Centre, XLRI · ed. Kuruvilla Pandikattu SJ · pp. 49–58
Three short-form strategy cases on Indian companies, published in Business Standard Smart (2026).
Case · 2026
How Granules India Rebuilt Trust Through Radical Transparency
Business Standard Smart
Case · 2026
How Cycle Pure and Wagh Bakri Built Moats Out of Value
Business Standard Smart
Case · 2026
Silence as Strategy: How Zerodha and Razorpay Won Without Noise
Business Standard Smart
CSR Times · Feb 2026
Why Budget 2026 Must Be a Doctrine of Defence, Not Just a Statement of Accounts
India Today · Dec 2025
VRS or Early Retirement? Why Your PF Needs a New Story for a New Life
Indian Express · Nov 2025
CAT 2025: How to Master the 40-Minute Race Per Section
BW Education · Jul 2025
Neuroscience of Learning in an AI Era
DataQuest · Feb 2025
How Entrepreneurs Are Building a More Secure Digital Future
NDTV · Sep 2025
India's employability gap & Yogya Bharat Mission
Business Standard · Jul 2025
Depositing big cash sums: tax rules & I-T notices
GoodReturns · Jul 2025
Why earning just over ₹50L can be a net loss
India Today · Jul 2025
Who is poor? Income inequality & the PPP debate
Business Standard · Jun 2025
RBI MPC meeting highlights
CNBC TV18 · Jan 2025
Budget 2025 expectations & the steel industry
Times Now · Jan 2025
Economic Survey 2025 live commentary
Financial Express · Jan 2025
Budget 2025: transforming India's education landscape
Business Standard · Jan 2025
Budget 2025 expectations: geospatial & satellite tech
04 / Conferences & talks
On the podium.
From Copenhagen to Kashipur, Kent to Kharagpur — presenting work-in-progress at the venues where the field shows up.
- AOM 2026Philadelphia, PA, USA · 4 Aug, 1:15–2:45 PM · Marriott Downtown, Franklin 8
Entrepreneurship Under Constraint: How Bricolage Transitions into Effectuation in Family Businesses
86th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management
BAM 2025Kent Business School, UK4 papers · dissertation clusterDrawn from the doctoral dissertation, "Entrepreneurial Resourcefulness in Resource-Constrained Environments."
- ·Thriving with Less: Family Entrepreneurship in Institutional Voids
- ·Towards a Unified Theory of Entrepreneurship: A Neurodiverse Promise of the Spiky Profile
- ·Conceptualising Family Business Resourcefulness in Resource-Constrained Environments
- ·Resourcefulness of Family Business in Penurious Environments
- AOM 2025Copenhagen, Denmark · Jul 25–29
Conceptualising Family Business Resourcefulness: A Socio-material Perspective on Family Firm Advantages in Resource-Constrained Environments
85th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management
- XLRI · 2024
Cultivating Trust: Human Capital and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour in Family Enterprises
International Industrial Relations Conference · with Leeds University Business School & Friedrich Ebert Stiftung
- XLRI · 2024
Navigating the Maze: Corporate Bribery and Ethical Choices in Indian Family Firms
International Conference on Enabling Social and Business Responsibility
- XLRI · 2024
Conceptualizing Family Business Resourcefulness (FBR) in a Resource-Constrained Environment
Doctoral Colloquium on AI & Sustainability
- MERC 2023 · IIM Kashipur🏅 Best Paper in Track
A Study of How Family Involvement Impacts Sustainable Innovation in Family Firms
Entrepreneurship Track 1
- SBM 2023 · IIT Roorkee + ASU
An In-depth Analysis of the Impact of Family Involvement on Sustainable Innovation in Family Firms
- POMS India 2023 · XLRI
Exploring the Innovation Heritage: Family Involvement in Propelling R&D within Family Enterprises
- IIT Kharagpur · 9th MDC
Bibliometrics Analysis of Family Firms Internationalization
05 / Teaching
Strategic Management, Business Simulation and GenAI for Business.
Experiential, simulation-based, case-led, and AI-enabled. Full course materials and learning activities are organised here.
Programme
1-Year MBA
Class sessions, cases & reading lists for the PGPM cohort.
Open page
Programme
2-Year MBA
Index of strategy & entrepreneurship modules across terms.
Open page
Experiential Leadership
Karma Yoga
A community field lab for empathy, responsible action, measurable impact and reflective leadership.
Open page
Strategy Capstone
Business Simulation
Twenty decision-rich sessions connecting strategy, finance, markets, operations, people and ESG.
Open page
Teaching Resource
Case Study Preparation
A practice-first studio for structuring, analysing and communicating consulting cases.
Open page
MBA & PhD
AI Hackathon
A build-first AI experience grounded in real problems, working prototypes and responsible innovation.
Open page
Career
Placements
Role fit, proof-led CVs, interview stories and deliberate practice.
Open page
“Strategy is taught best in the same key it is lived — under constraint, with imperfect information, and in the company of people who disagree well.”
06 / PhD supervision
Working with me.
I supervise doctoral and pre-doctoral researchers working at the intersection of strategy, entrepreneurship, and organisation theory. I take on a small number of students each cycle so I can be genuinely available.
Send a 1-page proposalWhat I look for
- · A real puzzle, not a topic
- · Methodological seriousness
- · Reference integrity (no fabrications)
- · Patience for revision
How I supervise
- · Weekly written check-ins
- · Theory-first, then design
- · Co-author when warranted
- · Honest, constructive critique
Open topics
- · Family business resourcefulness
- · AI in management education
- · Frugal innovation in services
- · Neurodiversity & capabilities
Before you write
- · Read 2 of my papers
- · Draft a 1-page concept note
- · State your research question crisply
- · Tell me why now, and why me
07 / Executive education
For senior leaders.
A modular MDP curriculum, plus selected engagements with public-sector institutions and community programmes.
Programmes conducted
Creativity in Problem Solving & Task Prioritization through Visual Thinking
A 1-day programme for the Indian Revenue Service at the National Academy of Direct Taxes, Delhi Campus — co-facilitated with Prof. S. K. Palhan. Participants left with visual problem maps and 30-60-90-day execution plans.
Experiential Learning for Underprivileged Students & Volunteer Teachers
Story-based values learning, creative puzzles, STEM demonstrations and team games — with replicable classroom activity templates left behind for the teachers.
Modular MDP curriculum
Module 01
Strategic Formulation & Leadership
- Top-down & bottom-up formulation
- Stakeholder influence on strategy
- Strategic leadership
- Vision & mission as design choices
Module 02
Implementation & Org Design
- Capabilities for execution
- Role of middle managers
- Structure & resource allocation
- The 7S framework
Module 03
Leading Teams & Change
- Communicating strategy
- Inspirational leadership
- Negotiation & influence tactics
- Pervasive commitment
Module 04
Performance & Control
- Balanced scorecard
- Management control systems
- Performance dashboards
- Finance vs. operational control
Module 05
Advanced Strategic Contexts
- Contextual intelligence
- Technology adoption
- Internationalisation & liability of newness
Custom
Bespoke Programmes
I co-design MDPs for corporates, government academies, and family business owners. Recent engagements include IRS officer training and senior PSU leadership.
Discuss a programme08 / Gallery
In the field.
Conferences, classrooms, and the occasional award.
AACSB peer review visit · Societal impact in dialogue
With Dr. Raju Balakrishnan and Great Lakes colleagues—connecting Karma Yoga and the Sustainability CoE with SDG 4 and SDG 11.
Ideas in motion · Interactive classroom dialogue
Great Lakes community · In the field
A moment of recognition · The Gauntlet
At the judging table · CREST 2025
CREST 2025 · The Gauntlet
Strategy in dialogue · PGDM classroom
From problem to prototype · AI Hackathon
AI Mini Hackathon 2026 · Awards and applause
Students and faculty celebrate a winning prototype team at Great Lakes Gurgaon.
From prototype to podium · AI Mini Hackathon 2026
A student team marks its achievement together on campus.
The room where ideas become working demonstrations
09 / Get in touch
Let’s talk.
For PhD enquiries, MDP collaborations, speaking invitations, or to share your work — I read every email. Choose the path that fits.