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Rajat Dhawan

Senior Partner and India Managing PartnerGurugram

Counsels CEOs and boards on performance transformation, corporate strategy, and organizational effectiveness; catalyzes the firm’s innovations to deliver holistic client impact; works to accelerate India’s sustainable and inclusive growth

Rajat is the managing partner for McKinsey in India, where the firm has one of the largest pools of people across its consulting offices and global capability centers.

He advises CEOs and top teams at many high-performing companies on their performance transformation. With a passion for creating lasting impact with clients, he has supported dozens of companies across Asia and Europe on their transformation journeys to become preeminent national and global leaders.

Recently, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Kanpur) conferred Rajat with the Distinguished Alumnus Award (DAA 2024) in recognition of his exemplary contributions in the field of “Driving Innovation-led Growth and Performance Transformation for India Inc.”

Since joining the firm in 1997, Rajat’s deep expertise has spanned several sectors such as automotive, advanced electronics, technology, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, and basic materials. Across these sectors, he has architected large-scale transformation programs to deliver impact in transforming margins, scaling businesses, entering new businesses, strengthening organizational capabilities, and successfully digitizing go to market and operations.

A leader in innovation and competency building, Rajat founded several centers of competence in India, which house functional expertise in domains such as analytics, product development, manufacturing, and purchasing. He was also instrumental in setting up the Innovation & Learning Center Gurugram, a learning hub for digital and Industry 4.0 topics. Earlier, he helped set up the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility in Asia, which helps companies, investors, and governments prepare for non-fossil-fuel and autonomous forms of mobility.

Outside of McKinsey, Rajat works to create an enduring impact for communities in India by driving sustainable, inclusive, and resilient growth for the Indian economy. He has led the creation of a roadmap for India’s Century through 2047 and specifically crafted the funding imperatives for sustainable and inclusive growth during India’s G20/B20 presidency. In collaboration with CII, Rajat has catalyzed the creation of a Unicorn 2.0 roadmap to grow the start-up ecosystem in India. He is also a co-founder and sponsor of Ashoka University, a leading liberal arts and sciences university in India.

Published work 

Driving sustainable and inclusive growth in G20 economies,” McKinsey & Company, August 2023

The future of mobility: Transforming to be ahead of the opportunity,” McKinsey & Company, October 2022

The CEO agenda for companies in advanced industries,” McKinsey & Company, February 2021

A new growth formula for manufacturing in India,” McKinsey & Company, October 2020

Five priorities for corporate India in the next normal after COVID-19,” McKinsey & Company, June 2020

The future of Asia: Asian flows and networks are defining the next phase of globalization,” McKinsey Global Institute, September 2019

Mobility’s second great inflection point ,” McKinsey Quarterly, February 2019

How industrial companies can respond to disruptive forces,” McKinsey & Company, April 2018

PAST EXPERIENCE

Infosys
Software Engineer

Education

Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow
MBA

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
BTech