Uday Karmarkar

Uday Karmarkar began his teaching career as an assistant professor at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business. He later moved to the Simon School at University of Rochester, where he was Xerox Chair Professor of Operations Management and directed the Center for Manufacturing and Operations Management. At UCLA Anderson, he has been the Los Angeles Times Chair in Technology and Strategy since 1994 and UCLA Distinguished Professor in Decisions, Operations and Technology Management, an area group that he notes is arguably “one of the best in the world.”

His recent research has focused on information-intensive industries, and operations and technology strategy for manufacturing and service firms. As the impact of technology and globalization is causing dramatic changes in many sectors in the U.S. and other major economies, his recent research addresses changes in employment and wages which have shown greater movement in services and information since 2000. Despite the fact that more areas of business are being automated, outsourced, off-shored or transformed by self-service, Karmarkar expects continued demand for MBA skills in the U.S. job market, with the greatest demand for workers who are creative, technologically savvy, analytical problem solvers, and able to work well with colleagues and customers. “Many of these skills involve complex tacit knowledge, which cannot easily be codified, off-shored or automated.”

Karmarkar has undertaken over 50 consulting and research projects on corporate strategy, digital transformation, supply chain management, e-business, industrial marketing, organizational restructuring and technology management for a wide array of companies in the United States, Europe and Asia. Among them are the Aditya Birla Group (India), Becton Dickinson (US and Japan), American Cimflex, Deere and Company, Eastman Kodak, Ford, GM, LA CRA, LA MTA, WW Grainger, Hindustan Lever (India), IBM, Singapore IDA, Thomson Publishing (multiple companies), USG and Xerox Corp. He has been an advisor to or director of startup companies engaged in sectors such as eCRM, ERP, web design, content creation, online education and data analytics software.

Karmarkar has published more than 100 research papers, book chapters and articles and has co-edited six research volumes. He has been invited to present his work at some 100 academic institutions around the world. He was a founding editor of the Journal of Manufacturing and Operations Management, the Technology and Operations Review and Current Trends and Foundations; he has served as associate editor or advisory editor of several other journals. He was the founder and director of the global Business and Information Technologies Project (BIT), which studied the impact of new online information and communication technologies on business practices worldwide with a network of partners in 16 countries. He has been a visitor at Erasmus University (Rotterdam), SDA Bocconi (Milano, Italy), MISB (Mumbai, India), Twente University (Netherlands), Alba (Greece), Theseus Institute (Nice, France), Nijenrode (Netherlands), University of Berne (Switzerland), SNU (Korea) and Korea University.

When Karmarkar is not conducting research on the U.S. economy, restructuring industry sectors, digital strategies or the design of consumer “experience,” he might be found on the squash court.

Courses: Courses and Teaching

• Global Operations and Technology Strategy
• Managing Services
• Managing in the Digital Economy
• Technology Management

Education

• Ph.D. Management Science, 1975, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• B.Tech. Chemical Engineering, 1968, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay