Jay P Desai conducts case study-based “Adaptive Leadership Strategy Workshops” for corporate clients as a Facilitator for his organisation, Lead Adaptive (www.jaydesai.com).  He is also the Founder & Managing Director of “Universal Consulting” and the Founder of “Strat Lancer”.
 
Jay has 32 years of management consulting experience in India and since 1994 has built “Universal Consulting” (www.universalconsulting.com) with an initial investment of just INR 50,000 into an established Indian life science strategy consulting firm. Jay has directed 1,020+ strategy, operations and organisation consulting projects for 360 clients across Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology, Medical Technology, Healthcare Services, Diagnostics, Crop Science & Food, Agribusiness, Industrials, Automotive, Building Materials & Products, Banking & Financial Services and other industries.  Jay is also the Founder of Strat Lancer (www.stratlancer.com), India’s first digital platform for strategy consulting with over 2,300+ independent consultants registered on the platform since 2018.  Jay was also a Partner in global Strategy Consulting Firm, L.E.K. Consulting, for ten years while Universal Consulting had a joint-venture with L.E.K. between 2007-2017.  He is also empanelled as a Facilitator at Harvard Business Publishing (Corporate Learning), a subsidiary of Harvard Business School, since 2017.

 

Triggered by the terror attacks in Mumbai in November 2008, Jay authored a book titled “Accountability:  Angst, Awareness, Action” on India's complex governance systems, using a systems-thinking lens.  As a result, Harvard University’s South Asia Initiative organized a ‘Best of Harvard in India’ roundtable series on “Accountability & Governance in 2012”.  Jay also spoke about accountability at a TEDx conference in Mumbai.  Jay has conducted guest lectures at the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School), University of Cambridge (Judge School), Vanderbilt University (Owen School), Ashoka University (New Delhi) and the Harvard Club of Mumbai. He has also spoken at many international conferences. He is empanelled as a Facilitator at Harvard Business Publishing (Corporate Learning), a subsidiary of Harvard Business School. 

 

His research interests centre around developing management insights from the fundamental principles of evolutionary biology and complex adaptive systems, to help inform the process of transformation in the Indian business ecosystem.

 

The 175 year old Willamette University, Oregon, USA, conferred upon Jay, the Distinguished Alumni Citation Award for 2017.  Jay is a student of Indian Classical Music and has been playing the Sarod (a string instrument) for almost 30 years and regularly performs at private concerts.