Case Method Virtuoso Debapratim Purkayastha Tops Bestselling List Again!

The Director of the world-class IBS Case Research Center is the #1 bestselling case author for the fifth consecutive year out of more than 8,000 case authors worldwide

The UK-based, The Case Centre, the independent home of the case method, today revealed the Top 40 Bestselling authors for 2019-20. Professor Debapratim Purkayastha was announced as the #1 bestselling case author for the fifth consecutive year out of more than 8,000 case authors worldwide.

Richard McCracken, Director, The Case Centre, said: “The Case Centre’s annual list of Top 40 Bestselling Case Authors recognises the best and most impactful case authors from business schools around the world. To feature in the list is a considerable achievement. Consider, then, the achievement of Professor Debapratim Purkayastha who tops the list for the fifth consecutive year. Professor Purkayastha deserves huge congratulations for his continuing success and continuing enthusiasm for adopting innovative approaches to case writing.”

The other bestselling authors are from internationally reputed B-schools like Harvard Business School, IMD, INSEAD, etc. The list of top Best-selling case authors is based on total sales (cases bought by B-school around the world) from the cases for each author in the academic year 2019-2020. The Case Centre started making this list public since 2016.

Professor Debapratim Purkayastha, said, “This has been a very tough year, so it’s been heartening to see an increase in adoption of my cases. My confidence in the case method of teaching has been reinforced, and IBS is entrenching it deeper into our curriculum. More institutions are likely to adopt active learning strategies to make their online classes more engaging – and what better way than to spice up a session with a real-world case.”

Purkayastha, who now lives with wife Somali and son Supratim in Hyderabad, has strong connections to Eastern India. He was born in Hailakandi, Assam to Anima Purkayastha and Late Dilip Kumar Purkayastha. He grew up in Guwahati, going to South Point School, and then Cotton College. He did his BSc. (Hons) from Cotton College, and MBA from Utkal University Bhubaneswar. He did his PhD from Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology.

Purkayastha joined academia after a stint in the pharmaceutical company where he worked in Sales, Sales Force Management and finally Product Management, working with companies such as Torrent, Zydus Cadila, Themis and Hetero Drugs.

He is currently the Director of the world-class IBS Case Research Center, and widely credited with propelling it to become one of the world’s top case publishing centers. Purkayastha is a Professor of Strategy at the AACSB-accredited ICFAI Business School Hyderabad, a constituent of the ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE) Deemed University. He is the Consulting Editor of ‘Case Folio – The IUP Journal of Management Case Studies’. He is an Editorial Board member for ‘Case Research Journal’ published by North American Case Research Association (NACRA); The CASE Journal, the official journal of the of The CASE Association, published by the Emerald Group, UK; and Case Focus, published by The Case Centre.

Debapratim Purkayastha, an internationally renowned case method expert, has won numerous case method and other teaching awards, including the highly prestigious ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Case Method’ award from The Case Centre. He won this much-coveted lifetime achievement award at the ripe age of 38, becoming the first from outside North America and Europe to get his award.

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In addition to featuring in the list of all-time bestselling authors of cases written over the past four decades (1973- 2014), he has won multiple case method awards and recognition from the Academy of Management (AOM), Association of MBAs (AMBA), CEEMAN, EFMD, Emerald Group Publishing, NACRA, oikos International (Switzerland), The Case Centre UK, John Molson School of Business (University of Concordia, Canada), Syracuse University (USA), China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), AESE Business School (Portugal), etc.

In March 2018, Purkayastha was recognised among India’s top faculty members, cutting across different disciplines, at the Career360’s “Faculty Research Awards”, which was given away by the Sri Prakash Javadekar, the then Union Minister of HRD, Government of India.

The Case Centre, the independent home of the case method, is also the world’s largest repository of case studies. Its stated mission is to advance the case method worldwide, sharing knowledge, wisdom and experience to inspire and transform business education across the globe. It is a not-for-profit organisation and registered charity.