FLAME TAO Knoware

The FLAME TAO Knoware Board of Directors

Ryuji Fukuda
Chairman Emeritus of TAO Knoware Pvt. Ltd.
Dr. Ryuji Fukuda is one of the World’s leading experts in the field of industrial engineering, stockless production, and quality improvement. He had a brilliant career with leading Japanese firms, including nearly 30 years at Sumitomo Electric. He has served as a consultant to the Japan Management Association and to major firms in Japan, North America and Europe. In 1978 he was honored with prestigious Deming Prize for his contribution to the field of productivity and quality improvement. He has developed “SEDAC” a team oriented approach to Continuous Systematic Improvement, the P/O matrix – a tool for Policy Deployment and is also one of the originators of the “Stockless Production” system.

Dr. Ryuji Fukuda graduated from the engineering department of Kyoto University in 1954 and entered Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. He served Sumitomo in a number of managerial positions and in 1975 became the Director of the Industrial Engineering department at the company’s head office.

From 1981 through 1992, Dr. Fukuda served on the board of directors and as a General Manager and Advisor for Meidensha Electric Manufacturing Company Ltd. From 1983 to the present he has been an independent management consultant and an advisor to the Japan Management Association.

Dr. Fukuda served as a part-time lecturer on Reliability Engineering in the System Engineering department at Kobe University from 1976 through 1987. He is the author of numerous works that have been translated into many other languages. The books translated into English are Managerial Engineering - Techniques for Improving Quality and Productivity in the Workplace (Productivity Press, 1983), CEDAC - A Tool for Continuous Systematic Improvement (Productivity Press, 1989) and Building Organizational Fitness – Management methodology for transformation and strategic advantage (Productivity Press, 1997).

His clients include leading companies like Sony, Nikon, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries., Fuji-Xerox, Sumitomo Special Metals, Sumitomo Electric Ind., Alfa-Lancia, Ferrari, Michelin, Fincantieri, Pratt & Whitney, ITT and Volvo.

Parag Shah
Parag Shah is the founding member and Chairman of the Foundation for Liberal And Management Education, a “not for profit “organization founded in 2004 at Pune. He is a postgraduate from Institute for Management Development & Research, Pune, and has business interests in diverse fields.

He is a philanthropist, and is currently anchoring the growth of FLAME as a world-class institution of higher learning grounded in Indian values, with the mission of providing a well-rounded and holistic education.

Prof Indira J. Parikh
Prof. Parikh is the former Dean, Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad, and currently the President of Foundation of Liberal And Management education. She is a leading consultant in Organization Behavior and Development. Dr. Parikh has taught at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France and Texas A & M University, USA.

Prof. Parikh was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for the Best Teacher in Management by Ascent in the World HRD Congress, 2001. She completed her BA in Social Studies in 1969 and MA in Education in 1970 from the University of Rochester USA. She did her Ph.D in 1979 from Gujarat University Ahmedabad.

Prof. Parikh is the founding member of Sumedhas Academy for Human Context an institution that offers a professional internship in Applied Behavioral Sciences, as well as the Indian Academy for Organization Development. She also has many publications to her credit - Books, research papers, monographs, articles, working papers, etc.

N.S. Raghavan
He was a co-founder and former Joint Managing Director of Infosys. NSR, as he is known, took voluntary retirement from Infosys in 2000 to promote his vision of entrepreneurship and India-based global companies on a broader scale. To help create world-class enterprises and to support Indian entrepreneurs, he, along with a few associates, started Nadathur Holdings & Investments. To encourage entrepreneurship in the country and help incubate start-ups, he helped set up the N. S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB). NSRCEL has been set up with a contribution of US$ 2.7 Million by N S Raghavan

NSR was selected by a reputed panel of International judges to receive the Dhirubai Ambani Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship for the year 2004 on the 57th Independence day of India banquet held in Los Angeles on Aug 15th.This award was given to him by FOIAC, City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles and Orange County, State of California and the Congressional offices of the USA.

Raghu Ananthanarayanan
Raghu is a leading consultant to several blue chip companies – Indian as well as multinationals. He has devoted more than two decades towards transforming the organizational culture of several leading organizations.

Raghu completed his B. Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. He went to complete his M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from IIT, Madras. Raghu is a founding member of Sumedhas Academy for Human Context as well as the Convener for Indian Academy for Organization Development

Raghu has been a Visiting Faculty at Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, and has consulted with National Institute of Design.

He has pioneered the application of yoga and traditional theatre in process work, and its deployment within the OD context. He has many publications, including books on Yoga, a book on alignment titled The Totally Aligned Organization, and papers on Organization Development.

S. Badri Narayana
Badri is a mechanical engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. His rich industrial experience over two decades spans a wide field covering project management, product development, techno-commercial marketing and quality assurance systems.

Badri anchors the Diploma Program in Lean Management, where he integrates his experience of the Indian industry, the Lean philosophy, and the action research context, to pioneer a unique offering to institutionalize Lean and transform organizations.

Badri has worked with global organizations on design of throughput systems, productivity enhancement, plant layout, and integrating socio technical systems. He leads the Operational Excellence team at FLAME TAO Knoware and brings an acute understanding of behavior and the shop-floor context. Badri is a member of Sumedhas Academy for Human Context.