Srikumar S. Rao (born 11 April 1951)is an elite coach who works with a select group of entrepreneurs, professionals, and senior executives. He is also a speaker, author, former business school professor and creator of Creativity and Personal Mastery (CPM), a course designed to effect personal transformation. He is a

TED TED may refer to: Economics and finance * TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar Education * ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association ** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey ** Transvaal Education Depa ...

speaker, and has authored ''Are You Ready to Succeed: Unconventional Strategies for Achieving Personal Mastery in Business and Life,'' which is an international best seller,El Periodico de Catalunya. http://servidor.edicionesurano.com/i_prensa/1269/URANO_EXIT_(EL_PERIODICO_DE_CATALU%C3%91A)_07-12-2006_P%C3%A1g54.pdf. 07/12/2006. and ''Happiness at Work: Be Resilient, Motivated and Successful – No Matter What'', a bestseller on ''Inc.'''s "The Business Book Bestseller List.""The Business Book Bestseller List". http://800ceoread.com. April 2010. Most recently, he has written ''Modern Wisdom, Ancient Roots: The Movers and Shakers' Guide to Unstoppable Success''. This latest book was the #1 Amazon bestseller in the Personal Transformation & Spirituality as well as #1 Spiritual Growth and #2 in Personal Success & Spirituality. He is also the creator and narrator of the audio-course ''The Personal Mastery Program''."The Personal Mastery Program". https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Mastery-Program-audiobook/dp/B00NVM4PXM/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3VOWFYDPR6WUP&keywords=srikumar+rao+personal+mastery+program&qid=1673915690&sprefix=srikumar+rao+personal+mastery+program%2Caps%2C67&sr=8-1. 2008. Most recently, he launched a 45-day course with Mindvalley called "The Quest For Personal Mastery" to help participants let go of limiting beliefs, increase resilience and create a more successful life."The Quest For Personal Mastery". https://www.mindvalley.com/personal-mastery. 2021.

Youth and education

Rao was born in Bombay (current day

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

) in 1951, and received his schooling in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

and

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

. He graduated from Narendrapur, the flagship school of the

Ramakrishna Mission Ramakrishna Mission (RKM) is a Hindu religious and spiritual organisation which forms the core of a worldwide spiritual movement known as the ''Ramakrishna Movement'' or the ''Vedanta Movement''. The mission is named after and inspired by th ...

system in West Bengal. He was a physics major at St. Stephen's College,

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

, and subsequently obtained an MBA from the

Indian Institute of Management The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are central government-owned-public business schools for management offering undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and executive programmes along with some additional courses in the field of busine ...

, Ahmedabad. Rao then came to the United States as a doctoral student and obtained a Ph.D. in Marketing from

Columbia Business School Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a Private university, private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and is one ...

, New York in 1980.

Professional background

Rao was an executive at Warner Communications from 1973 to 1975. He worked on the advertising strategy for ''

The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty W ...

''. From 1977 to 1978, Rao was a financial executive in the mergers and acquisition division of the Continental Group. Rao moved to Data Resources, Inc. in 1978, and was promoted to head their marketing research department. He continued in that position when DRI was acquired by

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referenc ...

, and went over to academia in 1983. Rao was a marketing professor at Baruch College, City University of New York from 1983 to 1985. He then taught at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University, where he was appointed the Louis and Johanna Vorzimer Professor of Marketing. He was a contributing editor for ''Success'', ''Financial World'' and ''Forbes'', and has written hundreds of articles for these publications and others such as ''Inc.'', ''Training'' and ''Hemispheres''. His article "The Shape of Leadership to Come" was recognized as a "Citations of Excellence Top 50 Papers" winner by

Emerald Management Reviews Emerald Publishing Limited is a scholarly publisher of academic journals and books in the fields of management, business, education, library studies, health care, and engineering. History Emerald was founded in the United Kingdom in 1967 as ...

in 2009."Citation of Excellence, Emerald Management Reviews 2009". http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/reviews/awards.htm?id=2009. Retrieved 15 August 2012.

Creativity and Personal Mastery (CPM)

In 1994, Rao created and began teaching a course known as Creativity and Personal Mastery (CPM) at Long Island University. He moved the course to Columbia Business School in 1999 and taught CPM at Columbia until 2005. He has also taught CPM at London Business School, the

Kellogg School of Management The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (also known as Kellogg) is the business school of Northwestern University, a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1908, Kellogg is one of the oldest and most p ...

at Northwestern University and the

Haas School of Business The Walter A. Haas School of Business, also known as Berkeley Haas, is the business school of the University of California, Berkeley, a public research university in Berkeley, California. It was the first business school at a public university i ...

at the University of California at Berkeley.Van Slambrouch, Paul. "A business course that puts personal growth on the bottom line". http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Home/2010/0705/A-business-course-that-puts-personal-growth-on-the-bottom-line/. 5 July 2010. He has spoken to alumni of other business schools including

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

, MIT,

Wharton Wharton may refer to: Academic institutions * Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania * Wharton County Junior College * Paul R. Wharton High School * Wharton Center for Performing Arts, at Michigan State University Places * Wharton, Ch ...

, INSEAD,

Dartmouth Dartmouth may refer to: Places * Dartmouth, Devon, England ** Dartmouth Harbour * Dartmouth, Massachusetts, United States * Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada * Dartmouth, Victoria, Australia Institutions * Dartmouth College, Ivy League university i ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

and

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

. Rao currently teaches Creativity and Personal Mastery privately, in major cities including New York, San Francisco and London, and in corporate settings. CPM has had its own

alumni association An alumni association or alumnae association is an association of graduates or, more broadly, of former students (alumni). In the United Kingdom and the United States, alumni of universities, colleges, schools (especially independent schools), ...

since it was a course at Columbia.O'Connell, Patricia. "Q&A with Srikumar S. Rao.

7 May 2010. ''Training'' magazine described the course in its Leadership issue of May/June 2012.Wu, Amy. "The Search for Self". http://www.trainingmag.com/content/search-self/. 29 May 2012.

Personal

Rao is married to Meena Rao, the Director of Organic Chemistry Laboratories at Barnard College, Columbia University. He has a daughter, Gowri, who has an MBA from Columbia and is married to Abhinav Agrawal, a Harvard MBA. Gowri and Abhinav both work in San Francisco. His son, Gautam, graduated from Columbia Law School and is an attorney in New York.

Works

* (2022) ''Modern Wisdom, Ancient Roots: The Movers and Shakers' Guide to Unstoppable Success'' * (2005) ''Are You Ready to Succeed? Unconventional Strategies to Achieving Personal Mastery in Business and Life'' * (2010) ''Happiness at Work: Be Resilient, Motivated, and Successful- No Matter What'' * (2008) ''The Personal Mastery Program: Discovering Passion and Purpose in Your Life and Work'' * (2012)
The Happiness Matrix: Creativity & Personal Mastery
'

References

External links

Official Site

Thinkers 50 Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rao, Srikumar 1951 births Living people Businesspeople from Mumbai Ramakrishna Mission schools alumni Columbia Business School alumni Indian motivational speakers Indian emigrants to the United States American people of Indian descent American businesspeople