Jay Desai is the Founder & Managing Director of Universal Consulting India Pvt Ltd, a Strategy, Operations & Organisation Consulting Firm and has 36 years of management consulting experience in India.  Jay founded Universal Consulting 32 years ago in 1994, with capital of Rs 50,000.  He has directed 1100 strategy, operations and organisation consulting projects for 390+ multinational / Indian clients across the Life Sciences & Medical Technology, Agribusiness & Food, Industrial Products, Capital Goods, Construction & Building Materials, Automotive, Ports & Logistics and Banking & Financial Services sectors.  More than 75% of Universal Consulting’s work comprises repeat work from existing clients and referrals from them, having provided around 3 million consulting hours.  Universal Consulting is now among the most followed Indian consulting firms, with 90,000 followers on LinkedIn.  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.   

 

Prior to founding Universal Consulting almost 32 years ago, Jay worked with Arthur Andersen & Co (Andersen Consulting) in Mumbai from 1989 to 1994.  Jay has completed the Advanced Management Program (AMP) from the Harvard Business School, an MBA from Willamette University, an MS in Biology from Purdue University and a BSc in Life Sciences from the University of Mumbai (St Xavier’s College).

 

Triggered by the terror attacks in Mumbai in November 2008, Jay authored a book titled “Accountability: Angst, Awareness, Action” (Pearson 2012) on India's complex governance systems.  As a result, Harvard University’s South Asia Initiative organized a ‘Best of Harvard in India’ roundtable series on “Accountability & Governance in 2012”.  Jay has conducted guest lectures at The Wharton School, University of Cambridge, Vanderbilt University, Ashoka University, the Harvard Club of Mumbai and the Indian School of Business (Mohali).  He has also addressed several CEO, CFO, CHRO and YPO Forums across the country and a TEDx conference in Mumbai.

 

Jay’s academic research interests centre around developing management insights from the fundamental principles of evolutionary biology, ecology and complex adaptive systems, to help inform the process of transformation in business ecosystems. 

 

The 183 year old Willamette University in Oregon, USA, conferred upon Jay, the Distinguished Alumni Citation Award for 2017.  Jay is a serious student of Indian Classical Music and has been playing the Sarod for more than 34+ years and regularly performs at private concerts.