In Conversation With Rajiv Jayaraman, Founder-CEO, KNOLSKAPE

Updated November 2026. This was first published on 21 November 2022. The idea is the same. Any number below is what the original piece said then. It is not a new count. This is a record of a conversation from that day. No new quotes were added.

Key takeaways

Rajiv Jayaraman is the Founder- CEO of KNOLSKAPE and serves on its board of directors.
He has played a pivotal role in creating an award-winning portfolio of experiential learning products and is responsible for KNOLSKAPE’s global business strategy and growth.
Under his leadership, KNOLSKAPE has grown into a leading player in the corporate learning space.

Rajiv Jayaraman is the Founder- CEO of KNOLSKAPE and serves on its board of directors. He has played a pivotal role in creating an award-winning portfolio of experiential learning products and is responsible for KNOLSKAPE’s global business strategy and growth. Under his leadership, KNOLSKAPE has grown into a leading player in the corporate learning space.

A TEDx speaker and a leading thought leader in the space of digital transformation and learning, Rajiv has keen interest in the psychology of learning, design and technology. He works with CXOs and senior leaders of leading companies to help them transform talent for the digital age.

He trains and coaches senior leaders across many Fortune 500 companies on leading innovation, change and risk. Prior to KNOLSKAPE, he worked at Oracle USA in the server technologies division, where he led numerous product development efforts from the ground-up.

1. Tell us a little about your journey with Knolskape. How did it begin and what are your #

The corporate learning business model of Knolskape started in 2013. In the last eight years, Knolskape has been working with more than 375 leading enterprises across 75 countries. We have touched close to a million users or learners worldwide across all of these companies. This journey has been an exciting one, where I’ve been able to see from close quarters, the talent challenges faced by various industries across geographies and across various career levels within the company. Knolskape essentially is an experiential learning provider. Our mission is to help companies and employees become future-ready through experiential learning.

Experiential learning is important in today’s context because, in the digital age, where disruption is becoming the norm, the rapid transformation of mindsets and skillsets is an order. We need a methodology that helps companies, leaders, people to quickly unlearn and relearn new mindsets and skillsets. The traditional learning models are falling apart, and that’s why we need a technology-enabled experiential learning methodology coupled with talent analytics.

When it comes to future growth plans, Knolskape intends to become a dominant player globally. As a technology-led experiential learning platform, today, Knolskape is present in four countries, physically headquartered in Singapore. We have presence in Malaysia, India and US. We work through partners across multiple countries worldwide. Our ambition is to become a lot more global, with significant presence in the US, UK and other parts of the world. We also intend to grow our partnership network significantly. We want to expand our product portfolio substantially over the next few years.

To give you an idea of the experiential learning products that I am talking about, these are simulations that mimic real-world situations. The idea is to immerse the learner in these virtual environments and see how they respond to these situations. It’s similar to a flight simulator for a pilot. Knolskape has one of the largest simulation portfolios in the world, and it has one of the most sophisticated talent intelligence platforms behind all of these simulations. In a nutshell, our growth model is to go global, significantly expand our partner network, and rapidly expand our product portfolio.

2. Cultural elements play a crucial role in digital transformation. How does the experient #

There’s a popular saying, ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’. Now, while many companies today, in response to the disruption happening in the digital age, have come up with digital strategies, new ways of configuring their business, new business models and the ability and what it can do for the same. One of the most important aspects to be successful is having the right culture that allows you to be successful over a long period of time. In a sense, strategy, capability and culture, all three are very important for an company to succeed and thrive in the digital age. Today, you find a lot of focus and attention going towards strategy and building new what it can do. culture and rewiring an company for the digital age is not happening as much. That’s a big threat for companies using experiential learning. Knolskape helps companies embrace the new cultural pillars that are needed to succeed in the digital age. For example, today companies have to be a lot more open, transparent and boundaryless compared to the industrial age. They have to take decisions in a data-enabled fashion, moving away from power and hierarchy and the traditional pyramid base model. They have to be diverse and inclusive, not just from an HR agenda perspective. also when they are operating as a digital platform. companies have to learn to be inclusive, to be diverse, representing multiple the people involved on the same platform. They also have to be agile, because changes are happening at a very rapid pace. They have to relentlessly iterate and be open to experimentation and smart failures. These are the essential cultural pillars that Knolskape helps companies embrace using our experiential learning products.

3. Your solutions take a new approach in developing leadership skills. Could you tell us h #

Leading in the digital age is significantly different from leading in the industrial age. At Knolskape, we speak about four leadership personas that are required to excel in the digital age. The four leadership personas are: Network leader, Sense-making leader, Design leader, and Agile leader. Now, networking leader is a person who is able to operate in a self-organized network, both within and outside the company. Because that is emerging as a new structure of work going beyond the command and control, and the hierarchical way of working. Sense-making leader is one who is able to understand and connect the dots, the various dots that are around us in our ecosystem. Derive insights, narrate compelling stories about these insights, and mobilize people towards execution is what a sense-making leader does. A design leader is a person who is able to carefully orchestrate the business in an ecosystem where there are multiple parties involved suppliers, vendors, partners, employees. How one element impacts the other, understanding those aspects requires a person to be a great design thinker and a systems thinker. And finally, an agile leader is somebody who is able to build a hypothesis, build a prototype measure, the impact, learn from the impact and keep going in iterative steps towards the finish line. This is markedly different from what we used to do in the industrial age, where there was a lot more certainty in our environment. Using experiential learning products, simulations and gamified tools, Knolskape helps leaders in these various companies embrace these leadership mindsets. We are also able to create intense analytics that help people get their self-assessment on where they stand.

4. We have heard a lot about your award winning solution known as ‘Digital Transformation #

It is common knowledge that more than 52 percent of companies on the Fortune 500 list have disappeared in the last 20 years, mainly because of digital. If you think about what sort of companies fell by the wayside in the last 20 years, you will realize that these companies were once upon a time, a dominant force in their industry segments. Be it Nokia, Blackberry, Blockbuster, Kodak to name a few. If you think about these companies, you will realize that they had deep pockets, they had a great brand, they had one of the best leadership teams in town. They had a long legacy that established them in the worldwide arena. But all of these strains that we usually talk about did not help them cut over to the digital age. Why did so many companies lose their plot? You will realize that these companies did not adapt themselves well to the changing circumstances. More importantly, this is a leadership failure, the failure to understand that the playground was shifting, and the failure to build a critical mass of change champions within the company. That’s where Knolskape’s product called ‘Digital Transformation Champion’ comes in handy. The objective of this simulation product that places the learner in the shoes of a transformation agent in an company is to help people align the strategic capability and the culture of the company. On the path towards the digital future, companies across various industries, from healthcare to agriculture, to banking, to retail, to aviation, all are going through a digital transformation process one way or the other. How Knolskape helps these companies is by building a critical mass of digital champions internally that understand the why, what, and how of the change. These people within the company, and they could be across any career level in the company, become the cheerleaders for the introduction of new technology, tools, processes, business models and so on. These people eventually become the flag bearers for digital transformation within the company. Without this critical mass of people cheerleading the transformation process, companies cannot shift rapidly to the new ways of working. And that’s where Knolskape is helping companies.

5. You already have more than 370 clients in 25 countries. Tell us something that worked f #

We have presence in India, Malaysia, and the US. Over the last few years, we’ve worked with more than 375 clients across many countries. What has allowed us to grow rapidly globally is the fact that number one, we have one of the world’s largest simulation portfolios. This is a key differentiator for us because simulations allow learners to have an immersive experience, durable learning experience and one that is extremely effective for mindset changes, skill set changes, and behavior changes. Alongside this immersive experience, companies also get talent intelligence reporting and dashboarding what it can do that can potentially feed into their talent strategy process. This is big reason why we were able to grow rapidly because of the sheer volume of products we have and using which we are able to cater to various learning needs within the company. The second important element in our growth model is the fact that we work with large enterprises across multiple countries. The fact that we have a strong network of partners around the world who add tremendous value to our products and take off products to market in various countries. And of course, all of this will not be possible without a strong committed team. I’m really proud of the fact that Knolskape employees are super committed to helping others succeed. In the future, you will see a lot more action happening at Knolskape, where we bring tremendous value to companies that are becoming future ready.

6. What role does machine learning and artificial intelligence play in making your solutio #

There’s a significant role that machine learning and artificial intelligence can play in talent development. Traditional learning models are broken, where there is no coherent feedback mechanism, there is no clear path forward. is personalized to my learning means. That’s where AI + ML can play a big role. Imagine a situation where I am immersed in a business situation through simulations; I take different decisions. The algorithm in the product figures out my learning styles, the maturity of my learning, my sophistication of understanding a concept, and my ability to apply that in the real world. If the system can figure this out, firstly, it can report this back to the individual and the company to determine readiness. More importantly, using this information, future steps can be charted out. This data, when fed into the talent strategy of an company, can help the company determine the overall readiness for strategy execution. It can help the company figure out what it needs to further invest in to build significant what it can do and can also inform strategies on build versus buy. Should I be building my talent, or should I be hiring talent from the external world? That’s an area where AI and ML can play a significant role in helping both the learner and the company. The other area where I see significant progress is in the use of AI and ML in conversational topics or themes. If you want to train somebody on crucial conversations, or if you want to train somebody on coaching or performance appraisal-related conversations. One is to do this in a static self-paced fashion. The other is to make it completely interactive through AI, where you’re talking to this virtual character, a coach, a customer, and you are having a live, real conversation. You’re getting instantaneous feedback on your performance. I’m quite excited about the possibilities of this. The next generation of learning products will not be hopefully static. it will be immersive, real-time, interactive, and very actionable.

7. Can you tell us a little about your book ‘Clearing the Digital Blur’ #

In 2019, I published a book called ‘clearing the digital blur’, through Wiley. This book was a culmination in many ways of the research I was doing with top-tier companies across many countries. I was able to see from close quarters, the kind of talent challenges that companies were facing in the digital world. One of the key codes that inspired me at that time is from Pierre Nanterme, former CEO of Accenture, who said more than 52 percent of companies on the Fortune 500 list have disappeared, mainly because of digital. So, that intrigued me to understand, why is it that well-established companies, market leaders in their respective domains are losing the plot? What my research revealed is that many lines that we were used to from the industrial age have started becoming less relevant. In other words, these lines are blurring away. When I dug deeper and try to understand what these lines are, a pattern emerged. There were four significant lines that we’re blurring away. In fact, blur is an acronym that stands for these four different dimensions: ‘B’ in blur stands for boundary-less companies, ‘L’ stands for limitless digitization, ‘U’ stands for unbounded innovation, and ‘R’ is relentless iteration. Now, looking at each of these four elements in a little bit of detail.

In boundary-less companies, the line that’s blurring away is the organizational boundary, both within and outside. Within the company, the traditional functional silos are getting dismantled. And because companies today are operating as a platform, as an ecosystem. the line that separates the company from the rest of the world is also becoming a lot more porous.

The line that separates the physical, digital, and biological is blurring away. Every physical object that you see around can potentially take on a ‘digital avatar’ just by slapping a sensor on it and connecting it to the cloud. As a result, today we are surrounded by digital objects that are expanding at a furious pace. Gartner says, there are 22 billion connected devices on the planet, whereas the human population is only seven billion. One of the consequences of this is that we are going to be dealing with a lot more data, a lot more intelligence in the environment we live in. Physical things, processes, business models; everything is getting digitized.

The third element is unbounded innovation. The industry boundaries are blurring away. When we work with banks, one realization that popular banks are coming to is that the word ‘bank’ doesn’t make sense anymore. The business model of issuing deposits and collecting loans is passe; it is rooted in the industry needs. Today, banks are realizing that they are actually lifestyle partners, that they need to be present whenever and wherever an economic transaction is taking place. So to an extent, you find companies moving beyond the traditional industry definitions to be wherever the customer is. To do this, companies have to transcend industrial boundaries.

The fourth element is relentless iteration, which is all about the time dimension blurring away. From the now, the new, the next, the different time horizons that you deal with in an company’s evolution; all of them seem to be happening in the ’now’ right now. Because product innovation cycles are compressing, we need to go faster to market, we need to be a lot more innovative, we need to be faster than our competitors, we need to rapidly iterate. Because of all of these reasons, everything seems to be happening in the ’now’.

When you apply this to different industries, you will realize that some industries are way more blurred than the others. And in fact, these are the four dimensions across which disruption is happening today. So, what Knolskape does is we take this framework, and we help companies embrace this framework and build mindsets, leadership skills and behaviors that will help companies successfully transform.

8) Which of the few (three of four) emerging technologies do you find the most promising a #

I’m personally fascinated by the following three emerging technologies. When you look at the evolution of computing, from the computer era, where things got digitized to the whole idea of websites, where we started getting into the internet of information and internet of exchange of information to now proceeding into the internet of value where you have smart contracts, you can distribute your work across multiple nodes on the internet, and have a safe, reliable system that doesn’t have a single point of failure, where trust is placed right in the center of the system. I am quite excited about the possibilities with blockchain from retail to government to supply chain. You find various use cases that are fascinating. Not to mention this whole movement behind cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin, all powered by blockchain. Obviously, this will have far-reaching consequences for financial systems around the world.

The second technology that I am personally excited with is mixed reality. Due to the ongoing pandemic, we see ourselves becoming a lot more virtual with our ways of living and working. The interface between the physical and digital world, from a simple meeting that we attend to the transactions, or other online experiences we share with others on the online medium; have certain limitations. But in the future, I think we will have an environment where the line between the physical, digital, and biological will be blurred significantly. We will be able to share these experiences with millions of people around the world. I am quite excited with mixed realities, of course, about the impact on the space of learning. learning is either virtual or in classroom, physical learning. Can there be a blended approach where we can use AR and VR in a very effective manner to help learners learn in real-time? I think vocational training is going to get significantly improved through augmented reality and mixed realities.

The third area that I am personally tracking is healthcare. The use of technology wearables can significantly change how care is delivered to patients worldwide. If you look at the space of wearables, or even embedded chips and devices inside a human body, they can make healthcare become 24*7 on-demand and predictive. So in a way, analytics is a big thing to watch out. With sensors and the cloud, we are able to produce massive amounts of information. But what do we do with that information?

9) Five points of advice to young entrepreneurs #

First, I would recommend entrepreneurs to pick an area that they are deeply passionate about, that they truly care about, irrespective of the financial rewards or anything else. Are they deeply motivated intrinsically to make a difference in the chosen domain to solve the problem that they have picked for their venture? So this has to be an inspiring problem to solve. It has to be a source of energy by itself. when everything else could potentially break down, can this mission provide the energy for you to move along.

Number two is recognizing that you cannot do everything by yourself. You need a strong team around you, a group of people who are equally passionate, if not more, about the problem that you’re trying to solve or the mission that you’re on. That collective energy is very important to achieve great outcomes.

Third is that there are plenty of ideas. It’s all comes down to the right execution. Can you pick the sources of value for your customers? Can you focus on articulating the value that customers understand and are willing to pay for? Or, in other words, finding the product that fits the market.

Point number four is around changing your ways of working depending on the evolution of your company. In the early days, while you are still trying to figure out the problem statement, the way you would operate is very different from the time when you have a product or the solution. When you want to find at least some initial adoption for the product when you’re trying to scale it globally or scale it to become a large enterprise, each stage requires you to operate in a different mindset and operate with a different working style. So, the ability to change gears according to the needs of the situation is very important.

And the fifth one is the ability to take care of your own health, both physical and mental, and the ability to manage your energies and time. You’re going after a hard problem to solve something that may not have been solved in the past. You’re likely to face a lot of No’s in the process. Customers, partners, or employees saying no to you till you hit the market. So, do you have the physical and the mental strength to push forward? Are you able to take care of your own energies and stay in the positive or enthusiastic zone for a very, very long time. Even when the payoffs are not happening, are you able to take care of your own motivation? That is probably the most important thing in all of this. It is connected to the first point I made earlier. is about choosing a mission, a problem statement that you deeply care about. becomes the source of energy for you.

10) Your five book recommendations #

One of the recent books that I read was ‘The Almanack of Naval Ravikant’ and was blown away by the clarity of his insights, the richness of his wisdom, and how he applies it in the domain of business. I think it’s a must-read for many of us.

Apart from that, I really enjoyed reading ‘Factfullness’ by Hans Rosling. It brings out the usual stereotypes that we have around the world. It busts a lot of myths and makes you think in terms of data and facts. How do you derive the right insights from them? So that you develop the right mental models?

Apart from that, I have been an avid reader of a lot of academic literature from the Blue Ocean strategy, a lot of these books comes out of B-schools. I think these are great books that gives you a good mental model to work with.

Questions and answers #

Why did so many companies lose their plot? #

You will realize that these companies did not adapt themselves well to the changing circumstances. More importantly, this is a leadership failure, the failure to understand that the playground was shifting, and the failure to build a critical mass of change champions within the company.

Should I be building my talent, or should I be hiring talent from the external world? #

That’s an area where AI and ML can play a significant role in helping both the learner and the company. The other area where I see significant progress is in the use of AI and ML in conversational topics or themes.

Even when the payoffs are not happening, are you able to take care of your own motivation? #

That is probably the most important thing in all of this. It is connected to the first point I made earlier.