Dr Renu Agarwal is a Professor in Management at the UTS Business School with expertise in Strategic, Operations and Supply Chain Management. Since 2022, Renu is the Director of the Masters in Supply Chain Management UTSOnline Programs and during the period 2016-2021, as Director Renu was instrumental in securing the Master in Strategic Supply Chain Management Program attain #1 ranking in Australia and 34th globally (as per QS ranking 2023). Renu provides leadership in the disciplinary fields of service innovation, service value networks, supply chain management, dynamic capability building, management practices, innovation and productivity, and policy making.

As the Director of management practices projects Renu has been instrumental in managing several federal and state government research project grants funded by DIISR Canberra, Ministry of Economic Development New Zealand, NSW Health, and Queensland Health working in collaboration with London School of Economics, McKinsey and Stanford University. This research resulted in the 2009 landmark study - Management Matters in Australia – Just how productive are we? - which has had an impact on government policy and contributed to the broader international WMS study. More recently, Renu and her team designed the Australian Management Capability Survey (MCS) funded by DIIS, Canberra in collaboration with Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and Prof Nick Bloom from Stanford University which resulted in the release of the data cube output 8172.0 - Management and Organisational Capabilities of Australian Businesses that allowed investigation of the gaps in productivity and management quality of firms, and that better overall, strategic, supply chain, environmental and digital management practices can have a positive impact on Australia’s economic growth, competitiveness, and policy making. In 2021 AusIndustry, DISER Canberra funded the Advisory Services project to evaluate the impact of Australian and International government-led business advisory services on business performance and capability building. in 2021, the Dynamic Capabilities National Survey was launched under a collaborative project between CEDA and UTS that is currently examining the extent of dynamic capabilities within Australian businesses and is assessing the impact of dynamic capabilities on Australian firm productivity and innovation.

In addition, Renu has been a lead investigator of several research projects on sustainable supply chain management, supplier relationship management, supply chain Innovation, management practices, and Australian Leadership Capability Standard projects with the Office of Environment and Heritage, NSW Premier and Cabinet Department, AiG, ResMed, SGEC, Microsoft, ASCI, Hargraves Institute and FIAL, and Centre for Workplace Leadership respectively, as well as a research investigator in the Service Innovation: developing business models for future Value Chains theme, part of the Wealth from Waste CSIRO Flagship Cluster project. In addition, more recently, as the Chief Investigator Renu has been instrumental in managing several projects: the Regional High Performance Networks Programs Project (Centre for Workplace Leadership, Melbourne), Mapping NSW Innovation Precincts project (IPC NSW Department of Industry), Economic Value of Accreditation to Australia project (NATA), Australia’s International Business Survey 2017 (Export Council of Australia), the Imagine Sydney Create project (Deloitte Access Economics), and Barriers to University-Industry Collaboration IPCC NSW Department of Industry). During 2022-23 the Impact of Slyp’s Smart Receipt solution project funded by Innovation Connect, DISER Canberra revealed a variety of indicators for both digital and paper receipt service supply chains.

Renu has published in top tier international journals which include the Regional Policy, Decision Sciences, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, International Journal of Production Research, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, International Journal of Logistics Management, Journal of Service Theory and Practice, Business Strategy and the Environment, Regional Studies, Regional Science, Computers and Industrial Engineering, Global Journal of Flexible Management Systems, Journal of Health Management and OrganizaIion, Journal of Management and Organization, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, International Journal of Supply Chain Management, Journal of Cleaner Production, Operations Management Research, Expert Systems With Applications, Asia Pacific Journal of Information Systems, Resources, Resources Conservation & Recycling, Education + Training amongst many. As a lead Editor, Renu has edited the Handbook Service Innovation published by Springer-Verlag UK, the Global Value Chains, Flexibility and Sustainability published by Springer, the Routledge Companion to Global Value Chains: Reinterpreting and reimagining megatrends in the world economy. as well as the 2022 Taylor and Francis edited book on Innovation.

Prior Academic and Industry Experience:
Renu has a background in tele- and data-communications engineering and more recently expertise in business and management. Renu possesses a unique blend of 30 years of extensive industry and academic experience, out of which 19 years of industry experience involved operational and strategic senior management roles at the State Rail Authority (SRA) of NSW, OTC and Telstra Corporation, and its Hong Kong based joint venture company REACH. Renu’s career initially started as a data engineer at the SRA NSW where her greatest achievement as a project leader included the commissioning of an X.25 Packet Switching Network across the NSW Rail Network. Thereafter, Renu switched to academics as a Lecturer in the Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee India teaching UG and PG students and conducting research. Returning back to Australia in 1993, Renu joined OTC/Telstra and through progressive promotions, Renu migrated to senior management roles in the area of international switching, global service planning, design and delivery, business management, and global strategic sourcing and procurement including the successful planning and cutover of the Telstra International telephone exchange networks established with 225 countries around the world. Thereafter, Renu joined REACH as the Global Strategic Sourcing Manager in 2002, Renu’s efforts resulted in millions of dollars savings for both Telstra and REACH whilst ensuring Telstra’s purchasing power in their vendor relationships; as a result of which Renu received a ‘Recognition Award’ from David Moffatt, the then CFO and Group Managing Director of Telstra Corporation. In these senior roles across different organisations, Renu successfully managed strategically important projects within budget, on time, and with significant impact and outcomes.