Creative Thinking
Strategic Foresight
Idea Management
Bioinspired Design
Sustainable Innovation
- tojin.eapen@spjimr.org
Tojin Thomas Eapen
Adjunct Faculty, Strategy and InnovationTojin Thomas Eapen is a pracademic whose work focuses on creativity, strategic foresight, innovation, and AI-enabled design. He is the founder of the Center for Creative Foresight (CForesight), a Senior Fellow at The Conference Board, and a member of the Thinkers50 Radar, Class of 2026.
Eapen holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MBA from the Indian School of Business, and a degree in Electrical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Calicut. Prior to joining SPJIMR, he served on the faculty at the University of Missouri and taught at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. He has also contributed as guest faculty to the Global Leadership Program at the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College.
His work has appeared in leading management publications, including Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and California Management Review, with research focusing on AI-augmented creativity, adaptive innovation, and strategic design. Eapen has advised organisations including Google, Samsung, ABB, Qualcomm, Robert Bosch, Tata Group, NetApp, and SKF, and has conducted executive education programmes for them. Before entering academia, he worked at Larsen & Toubro, where he contributed to product development and innovation initiatives. He also received the Sir Padampat Singhania Award from the All India Management Association for being recognised as India’s Best Young Manager.
Education
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Ph.D. 2020
Focus: Business Administration
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
M.S. 2019
Focus: Management
Indian School of Business, Hyderabad
Post-Graduate Program in Management, 2010
NIT Calicut
B. Tech, 2005
Major: Electrical & Electronics Engineering
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Research interests
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Selected publications
Govindarajan, V., Eapen, T. T., & Vadakkepat, G. (2026). How to Profit from Retro-Innovation. MIT Sloan Management Review. 67(3), 12-14. https:/sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-to-profit-from-retro-innovation/
Govindarajan, V., Seth, J., & Eapen, T. T. (2026). How to Harness the Potential of Bioinspired Innovation. California Management Review (CMR) Insight. https://cmr.berkeley.edu/2026/01/how-to-harness-the-potential-of-bioinspired-innovation/.
Eapen, T. T., Finkenstadt, D. J., Folk, J., & Metselaar, J. (2025). The Case for a Chief Idea Officer. California Management Review (CMR) Insight. https://cmr.berkeley.edu/2025/11/the-case-for-a-chief-idea-officer/.
Govindarajan, V., Finkenstadt, D. J., & Eapen, T. T. (2025). In turbulent times, consider “strategic subtraction.” Harvard Business Review, 103(6), 39-42. https://hbr.org/2025/06/in-turbulent-times-consider-strategic-subtraction/.
Eapen, T. T., & Finkenstadt, D. J. (2025). Managing difficult conversations on new technology integration: The case of generative AI. Strategy & Leadership, 53(2), 174–187. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-07-2024-0062.
Eapen, T. T., et al. (2025). Trisociation with AI for creative idea generation. California Management Review (CMR) Insights. https://cmr.berkeley.edu/2025/01/trisociation-with-ai-for-creative-idea-generation/.
Govindarajan, V., Eapen, T. T., & Finkenstadt, D. J. (2024). How to Create Products That Grow with Their Users. Harvard Business Review (Online). https://hbr.org/2024/12/how-to-create-products-that-grow-with-their-users.
Govindarajan, V., Eapen, T. T., & Finkenstadt, D. J. (2024). Design Products that won’t become obsolete. Harvard Business Review, 102(6), 96-103. https://hbr.org/2024/11/design-products-that-wont-become-obsolete.
Eapen, T. T. et al. (2024). Survivability as an organizational goal. Strategy & Leadership, 52(3), 27-37. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-03-2024-0026.
Finkenstadt, D. J., & Eapen, T. T. (2024). Using multimodal AI to streamline contract management processes. Contract Management, 64(9), 40-45.
Finkenstadt, D. J., Govindarajan, V., Martin, A., & Eapen, T. T. (2024). How Managers can Benefit from Multi-Modal AI Business Companions. California Management Review (CMR) Insights. https://cmr.berkeley.edu/2024/06/how-managers-can-benefit-from-multi-modal-ai-business-companions/.
Finkenstadt, D. J., Sotiriadis, J., Guinto, P. & Eapen, T. T. (2024). Contingency scenario planning using generative AI. California Management Review (CMR) Insights. https://cmr.berkeley.edu/2024/01/contingency-scenario-planning-using-generative-ai/.
Finkenstadt, D. J., Eapen, T. T., Sotiriadis, J., & Guinto, P. (2024). Use GenAI to improve scenario planning. Harvard Business Review, Special Issue, Fall 2024, 68-71. https://hbr.org/2023/11/use-genai-to-improve-scenario-planning.
Eapen, T., & Finkenstadt, D. J. (2023). Survivability design in hostile environments. Strategic Design Research Journal, 15(3), 307-317. https://doi.org/10.4013/sdrj.2022.153.07.
Eapen, T. T., Finkenstadt, D. J., Folk, J., & Venkataswamy, L. (2023). How generative AI can augment human creativity. Harvard Business Review, 101(4), 56-64. https://hbr.org/2023/07/how-generative-ai-can-augment-human-creativity.
Finkenstadt, D. J., Handfield, R., & Eapen, T. T. (2022). Certainty satiation marketing for disrupted supply chains. California Management Review (CMR) Insights. https://cmr.berkeley.edu/2022/01/certainty-satiation-marketing-for-disrupted-supply-chains/.
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Case studies
Eapen, T. T., Pedada, K., & Sinha, A. (2026). Bring Course Concepts to Life with Cartoons. Harvard Business Impact (Inspiring Minds).
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Books/Book chapters
Meyer, E., Flyvbjerg, B., Govindarajan, V., & De Cremer, D., et al. (2025). HBR’s 10 must reads 2026. Harvard Business Review Press. ISBN 979-8892791953.
Finkenstadt, D. J., & Eapen, T. T. (2024). Bioinspired Strategic Design. Productivity Press/Taylor & Francis, LLC. ISBN 978-1032715308. DOI: 10.4324/9781032715315.
Mollick, E., De Cremer, D., Neeley, T., & Sinha, P., et al. (2024). Generative AI: The insights you need. Harvard Business Review Press. ISBN 978-1647826390.
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Conferences
Eapen, T.T., Christianson, J.S., Wang, K., Kugler, P., Folk, J. (2026). Mnemonic Design with GenAI for Digital Security Management. In: Stephanidis, C., Antona, M., Ntoa, S., Margetis, G., Salvendy, G. (eds) HCI International 2025 – Late Breaking Papers. HCII 2025. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 2773. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-12773-0_3.
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Periodicals
Eapen, T. T., Pedada, K., & Sinha, A. (2026). How silly cartoons lead to serious results. Harvard Business Impact. (Adapted from “Bring Course Concepts to Life with Cartoons”).
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Featured in
This is how close AI is to coming up with the next viral product. Entrepreneur. May 2025.
Why not to invest in generative AI – for now. ITPro. April 2024.
How AI takes ‘democratized’ innovation to the next level. Forbes. February 2024.
Your organization’s leaders aren’t (yet) prepared to unlock generative AI’s full potential. Harvard Business Impact. August 2023.
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Awards and honours
Sir Padampat Singhania award for ‘Best Young Manager’ by the All India Management Association (AMA), 2008.
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Work experience
Academic Positions
Adjunct Associate Professor, Strategy and Innovation, SPJIMR, Mumbai. (May 15, 2026 – present)
Senior Fellow, The Conference Board. (2023 – present)
Assistant Professor, Trulaske College of Business, University of Missouri. (2020 – 2023)
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Professional positions
Founder and Senior Advisor, CForesight (Center for Creative Foresight), (2024 – present)
Director, Innomantra, (2010 – 2015)
Senior Engineer, Larsen & Toubro Ltd., (2005 – 2009)