Dr. Alok Kumar Rai is the Director of IIM Calcutta and former Vice Chancellor of Lucknow University. A distinguished academician and researcher, he has authored six books and edited four others in the domains of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Customer Loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, and related areas, published by renowned publishers such as McGraw Hill, PHI, Macmillan, Himalaya, Excel, and VDM.
With over 55 research papers published in leading refereed international journals across the US, UK, Europe, Australia, and Asia, as well as in reputed national journals of institutions like IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, IMT, FORE, Symbiosis, NMIMS, and ICFAI, Dr. Rai has made significant contributions to marketing literature. He is widely credited with standardizing the curriculum on Customer Relationship Management across India and several global institutions through his bestselling book Customer Relationship Management: Concepts and Cases (PHI Learning). He also pioneered the study of Customer Loyalty in India with his seminal book Customer Loyalty: Concept, Context and Character (McGraw Hill).
His research on CRM, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and service quality continues to be extensively cited worldwide. Alongside his academic achievements, Dr. Rai has served as a trainer and consultant for leading government and corporate organizations, including the Ministry of Defence (MoD), Department of Telecommunications (DoT), NTPC, ECGC, UPPCL, REC, and CSB. He has also successfully completed research projects funded by AICTE and UGC. An avid speaker and thought leader, he has been associated with NAAC, MHRD, and UGC, and has contributed to several university committees and boards on governance, faculty selection, and curriculum development. At Lucknow University, he also held several key administrative roles, including Coordinator of the PGDBA program at the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS).