Rao is the author of “Are You Ready to Succeed: Unconventional Strategies for Achieving Personal Mastery in Business and Life”, Hyperion, 2006. The book is an international best-seller and has been translated into many languages and distributed in all continents. He has conducted workshops for and spoken before executives of Microsoft, Google, Lehman Brothers, McDonald’s, Chubb, IBM, United Airlines, Allstate, Johnson & Johnson and dozens of others.He has been a contributing editor for Forbes and writes regularly on management practices, leadership and about the impact of technology on business processes. He also writes for other national magazines such as Inc., Business 2.0, Hemispheres, Beyond Computing and Training and was a contributing editor for both Financial World and Success. He is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

Rao was an executive with Warner Communications, Continental Group, Data Resources and McGraw-Hill and has consulted with such companies as RCA, Reuters, Citicorp, GTE, Pan Am and Diner’s Club. He has been a seminar leader with the Institute for Management Studies and the American Management Association. He is an expert on marketing strategy and has taught in the corporate programs of companies such as Verizon, Northrop-Grumman, Symbol Technologies and General Instruments as well as in the executive programs of London Business School, Columbia Business School and the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.

Rao is an adjunct professor at London Business School and the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served as a marketing advisor to the national board of MENSA. His other interests include tennis, squash, karate, table tennis and chess; Eastern philosophy and meditation; and Wodehouse, science fiction and creative writing.