Karan Girotra

Author's details

Name: Karan Girotra
Date registered: January 10, 2012
URL: http://www.girotra.com

Biography

Karan was born in Delhi, India, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology. He then moved to the US, where he earned a doctorate from the Wharton School for his examination of innovation processes and the early stage startups. He also took some time off from his doctoral work to help start up TerraPass, a profitable firm that has helped individuals and businesses reduce over a billion pounds of Carbon Dioxide. After Wharton, Karan moved to INSEAD, France, where he is an assistant professor of technology and operations management. At INSEAD, Karan researches and teaches issues related to business model innovation. His research has appeared in top academic journals and has been featured by the Financial Times, BusinessWeek, the Sloan Management Review and the Harvard Business Review. Karan’s MBA and executive courses on identifying and realizing business model innovations are amongst the highest rated courses at INSEAD and are routinely oversubscribed. Karan continues to engage actively with startups largely as an instigator, advisor and mentor. Each year, he runs an incubator-style tournament for INSEAD students that identifies and refines the best business model innovations-- some recent winners that he is mentoring, are planning to revolutionize the residential services, tourist guide, and the automated retail Industries! Karan blogs about business model innovation at www.renaissanceinnovator.com

Latest posts

  1. Extreme Focus and the Success of Germany’s Mittelstand — February 13, 2013
  2. Business Model Innovation: The Gift that Keeps Giving — December 7, 2012
  3. Outclassing Sourcing Champions — May 29, 2012
  4. Generating New Business Opportunities — April 5, 2012
  5. SXSW: INSEAD @ South by Southwest — March 19, 2012

Author's posts listings

Extreme Focus and the Success of Germany’s Mittelstand

In a recent post on Harvard Business Review bloggers network, we discuss the extreme focus business model of Germany’s famed Mittlestand:
Quick test: name one company that does one thing and does it very well. The companies that occupy the limelight are typically diversified giants that achieve growth through constant expansion into new markets and the introduction of additional product lines (just think P&G, GE, and Microsoft).… Read more

Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2013/02/extreme-focus-and-the-success-of-germanys-mittelstand/

Business Model Innovation: The Gift that Keeps Giving

In a recent blog post on the Harvard Business Review bloggers network,  we discuss the sustainability of the advantage that come  from innovating the business model.
With the Winter holiday shopping season, fashion apparel retailer Zara has been the focus of media attention — the New York Times recently profiled the innovative fast fashion business model pioneered by Zara, while Elizabeth Cline’s book on the costs of fast fashion has climbed up the sales charts.… Read more

Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/12/business-model-innovation-the-gift-that-keeps-giving/

Outclassing Sourcing Champions

With  increasing  specialization,  technological complexity, and globalization, firms now buy a long list of products and services from many outside providers. In industries like automobiles, consumer electronics and retail, reliably sourcing a multitude of products from supply chain partners is the key to success.… Read more

Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/05/outclassing-sourcing-champions/

Generating New Business Opportunities

Over the last 2 weeks, I have been teaching a newly developed INSEAD MBA course on Identifying New Business Opportunities (INBO). The class is structured as a hands on experiential workshop that combines three novel approaches to Innovation/Entrepreneurship: Business Model Innovation, Idea Tournaments and Lean Startups/Discovery Driven Planning.… Read more

Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/04/generating-new-business-opportunities/

SXSW: INSEAD @ South by Southwest

The 2012 edition of the South by Southwest conference (SWSX)  wrapped up in Austin last week. Over the last years, this  has become one of hottest stops on the startup circuit, earning a reputation as the biggest breeding ground for new ideas and creative technologies– notably, both foursquare and twitter  catapulted to the big leagues after they  presented early versions at SWSX.  … Read more

Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/03/sxsw-insead-south-by-southwest/

The Henry Ford of Cardiac Surgery

Cardiac surgery is a sophisticated, dangerous and delicate procedure; but an Indian surgeon and his hospital group have successfully transformed  it into a factory style mass operation, bringing high quality care to the many millions who could never before afford it. … Read more

Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/02/the-henry-ford-of-cardiac-surgery/

The Renaissance Innovator joins the INSEAD bloggers network!

From today, our blog,The Renaissance Innovator, is part of the official INSEAD bloggers network. So if you arrived here through the INSEAD blog, Welcome to our blog and read on for what this blog is about. For our loyal regular readers, nothing changes, you can read our blog posts exactly as you did before, and  we’d also recommend checking out some of the other excellent posts on the INSEAD blog.… Read more

Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/01/the-renaissance-innovator-joins-the-insead-bloggers-network/

Changing the Way People Give…

The world is full of problems– poverty, malnutrition,  medical access,  climate change, natural disasters, etc. It is also full of many tenacious do-gooders  with solutions,  and thankfully many generous souls who would like to financially support  these do-gooders.  Unfortunately,  the “marketplace”   that  matches the do-gooders with solutions is what economists would call very inefficient, that is many matches that are in the interest of  everyone involved are not made.GlobalGiving, GiveIndia and a new breed of startup donation platforms are attacking these inefficiencies with a new business model for charitable giving and forever changing the way people give.… Read more

Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/01/changing-the-way-people-give-2/

Page 1 of 212