N V Subba Rao
Subba Rao is a business leader turned academic and author with over two decades of experience spanning Telecom, FMCG, and startup ecosystems. Subbarao began his career at Procter & Gamble as a Management Trainee.
An alumnus of IIT Bombay and IMI, he has held CXO and board-level roles across marketing, sales, strategy, operations, and new product development, and holds multiple patents developed during his tenure at Procter & Gamble, Japan.
Alongside industry leadership, Rao has pursued design-led and systems-based approaches to innovation, including completing a Design Thinking Certificate program from Stanford Graduate School of Business, which further shaped his thinking on how technology, behavior, and organizational systems interact.
His recent doctoral research (FPM) on social media behavior and networked identity informs his work in Social Cybernetics, digital engagement, and emergent social systems—an interdisciplinary lens he applies across research, writing, and teaching. As an adjunct Faculty member at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Rao pioneered a course titled Social Cybernetics in Fashion, exploring how platforms, algorithms, culture, and identity shape modern consumer behavior and creative industries.
A lead trustee of the NGP Rao Foundation, a family foundation committed to advancing agricultural sciences and human development, Subbarao nurtures research and teaching interests in Social Cybernetics, social media and entrepreneurship, and is actively engaged with angel networks and startups as a board member and mentor.
The book 