Anand Kangala received his master’s degree in Business Administration from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. He also has a master’s and a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the University of Madras, India. Anand is a certified Cost and Management Accountant, Project Management Professional (PMP), and Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. Anand has more than 22 years of progressively responsible experience in the retail industry specializing in formulating and executing digital business strategies. He also has proven experience in enterprise planning and portfolio management functions. Anand is currently leading the finance transformation program for Home Depot to establish the digital foundation essential for providing an interconnected retail customer experience.
Anand’s reasons for pursuing a DBA is to harness and extend his real-world experience with academic rigor and unconstrained thinking. He intends to make meaningful contributions to the academic and corporate worlds by developing application-oriented frameworks. Anand also intends to pursue his passion for teaching and become a business school professor, imparting his knowledge and experience to future generations of students.
Anand’s interests include watching any sport he can play (cricket, table tennis, tennis), cheering for his college gymnast daughter, taking long walks and staying active with his wife.
Anand’s research fields include Business Strategy and Information Systems. His primary research interest is in analyzing the pace at which retail businesses must reinvent themselves and their operating models to maintain and/or gain new competitive advantages while balancing the need to satisfy the personalized preferences of the iGeneration and the desire to maximize shareholder’s wealth. He also intends to consider the impacts of the Fourth Industrial "Digital" Revolution (Industry 4.0) on businesses and consumers — specifically the convergence and configuration of Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Blockchain technologies. He theorizes that thoughtful assimilation of these emerging technologies is essential for business survival in the future.