His research focuses on supply chain management for short lifecycle products with unpredictable demand, and emphasizes production and inventory planning, and the role of incentives. He has written many articles, case studies and book chapters. He served as co-editor of a special issue of the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management focusing on “Retail Operations Management”, and a special issue of the Journal of Production and Operations Management on “Case-based Research in Operations Management”. He serves as an associate editor of Management Science.

He is co-director of a Sloan Foundation funded research project to study retail operations, supply chain, and merchandising practices. Over 30 retailers from the United States, Japan and Europe have participated in this study. The project involves researchers, including six doctoral students, from Harvard Business School and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

He has consulted with, and been responsible for management education programs for executives in, a number of companies, including Unilever plc., IBM, Compaq, Royal Ahold Corporation, i2 Technologies, Millenium Pharmaceuticals, Nordstrom’s Inc., and Bertelsmann Music Group. He has also helped companies design and develop decision-support systems for supply chain management.

Raman has a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and a Ph.D. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.


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As executive vice president of Emerging Business for Best Buy Co., Inc., a multinational retailer of technology and entertainment products and services, Kal Patel leads the company’s efforts to initiate, incubate and implement growth opportunities while increasing the enterprise’s capabilities for innovation. He also focuses on building relationships with venture capitalists to enable Best Buy to learn from the experiences of others and quickly adapt best practices to advance the company’s business objectives.

Patel joined Best Buy in 2003 as vice president of strategy. In 2005 he was named executive vice president of strategy and international where he played a leading role in exploring and leading the development of growth opportunities in new markets outside North American, including the company’s retail presence in China. In these roles, Patel was also instrumental in helping Best Buy transform into a radically different retailer — one that continually innovates through the insights from employees closest to customers.

Prior to joining Best Buy, Patel was a Partner at Strategos, where he and his colleagues helped frame and implement major growth-driven transformation initiatives for clients across all industries. His clients included Aviva (formerly CGNU), Morgan Stanley, Roche Diagnostics, Whirlpool, Shell, Sonera and Analog Devices. Prior to joining Strategos, Patel worked for KPMG Consulting and Courtaulds PLC in the United Kingdom.

Prior to taking on this role, Lukas was Vice President of Staples' wholesale division, a new business unit within the $16 billion office products company. He headed up the Staples RFID test program at the Rochester Distribution Center and is a member of the Staples RFID Steering Committee.

Prior to Staples, Lukas was Chief Operating Officer at Delta Search Labs, a leading supercomputing and visualization research facility located near MIT. There he was responsible for operations, research programs and industry outreach. Lukas began his professional career at McKinsey & Company, starting as Associate and leaving as Associate Principal. His industry focus included retail, petroleum, and high tech; functional focus on organization, pricing, and business building. Lukas has multiple advanced degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science.


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From 2002 to 2006, Sumant was the CFO of the Aditya Birla Group, one of India’s largest and most diversified business groups. With a market cap in excess of $30 billion, the Group is among the largest players in India in areas such as telecom, financial services, aluminum, copper, cement, etc., and among the largest global producers of fiber, carbon black, insulators, yarn, etc. As CFO, Sumant’s key responsibilities in the Group were M&A, fundraising, new projects, managing the planning and budgeting process for the Group, EVA, managing the Group’s cash flows including capital allocation, and investor relations. He also provided advisory services to the CFO’s of the Group companies.

Prior to joining the Aditya Birla Group, Sumant has over ten years of experience in international finance. He is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, the Indian Institute of Management and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He started his career with the Tata Administrative Service, where he was a member of the elite management cadre of the Tata Group. He then moved on to Citicorp Securities in New York where he was Assistant Vice President of the Emerging Markets Group and later, Vice President – Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa and South Asia – in London. Before joining the Aditya Birla Group, Sumant worked at ING Barings in New York where he was Managing Director responsible for the firm’s debt business for Latin America. During the course of his investment banking career in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, Sumant has extensively advised and raised funds for the governments of Argentina and Venezuela, the Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India, Croatia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Poland; as well as for major corporates in most emerging market countries.

Mr. Sinha is a CFA charter holder and is an active speaker at various industry forums in India and overseas. He is on the National Council of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), as well as the being Chairman of the National Retail Committee of CII. He has previously been on CII’s committees for Capital Markets and Corporate Governance; and is a member of the Conference Board’s India Advisory Council. Mr. Sinha is also on the Advisory Board of the School for International & Public Affairs of Columbia University, New York. He writes extensively on financial matters and wrote a regular column in the Financial Express.


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