Goutam Challagalla
Goutam Challagalla is dentsu Group Professor of Strategy and Marketing. His research focuses on how digital technologies, AI, and sustainability concerns are impacting companies’ business strategies and approaches to strategy and marketing.
Challagalla is the director of the Advanced Management Program and the Strategy Governance for Boards program, and is co-director of the Integrating Sustainability into Strategy program.
He has led programs on strategy and marketing issues for clients from a wide range of B2B and B2C industries, including AT&T, Beiersdorf, Cargill, Caterpillar, GEA, Grundfos, Kone, Nestlé, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Reckitt, DNB Bank, TBC Group, and Zurich Insurance Group.
His research has been published in top strategy, marketing, and management journals. He is a winner of the Maynard Award (2015) for the overall best paper in the Journal of Marketing. He has published articles on sustainability and AI in the Harvard Business Review (HBR). His latest article, “Stop running so many AI pilots” (HBR, November–December 2025), advocates a narrow and deep approach to implementing AI. Another article (with Frédéric Dalsace), “How to market sustainable products,” was included in HBR’s 10-Must Reads for 2025. His book, Clean Winners: Sustainability Strategy That Puts Customers First (with Frédéric Dalsace), will be published by Harvard Business School Publishing in March 2026.
Challagalla has authored many case studies. His case study, “Nespresso: Strategy Reset for Growth” (with Kamran Kashani) won the Overall category at The Case Centre Awards and Competitions 2025. Another case, “Has Nike lost its stride?” (with Ivy Buche), is a Molson case award winner.
Before joining IMD in 2015, Challagalla worked for 20 years in the US as a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and as a Principal at The Monitor Group, a strategy and marketing consulting company. He also sits on the Board of Multitude Bank. He has a PhD from the University of Texas, Austin.
