Sumantra Ghoshal, who died on Wednesday morning, aged 55, was arguably the most influential academic working in the field of international business.

His writing was fervent and his public appearances often mesmerising. With a razor-sharp mind and a fair dose of charm, his story-telling skills tickled taciturn managers as well as young students of business, making his work highly regarded by both the academic and the business communities.

He was one of the first management academics to study seriously the role of global companies and the impact of organisations on society. He monitored the rise of the hugely influential multinationals at a time when they were still emerging.

With Chris Bartlett, his mentor at Harvard and a long-time collaborator, he coined the phrase "the transnational corporation", which was swiftly adopted in the management lexicon. A true academic's academic, he published 12 books and copious articles and business case studies.

"His work was holistic - and years ahead of his time," says Gita Piramal, with whom he co-wrote the book Managing Radical Change.

Though most recently professor of strategic leadership at London Business School, Prof Ghoshal also worked at Insead in France, where he was promoted from junior academic to full professor faster than any other scholar there. He had studied simultaneously for two doctoral degrees, at Harvard Business School and MIT's Sloan School of Management, in two different subjects.

More recently, Prof Ghoshal played a formative and controversial role at the Indian School of Business, in Hyderabad, the first and only world-class business school in India. Appointed ISB's first dean, Prof Ghoshal quit six months before the school opened in 2002. He felt he was not cut out for mundane daily management but made up for his shock departure by teaching extensively.

In India, Prof Ghoshal's standing was unmatched at a time when Indian managers were gaining global recognition.

He was born in West Bengal, a region known for its output of scholars. He lived well - his energetic consultancy work helped him to acquire a serious collection of modern Indian art. He eschewed the academic stereotypes, and his sartorial style was in keeping with his choice of fine whisky and restaurants. Yet he was self-effacing.

Paying tribute to Prof Ghoshal, Laura Tyson, dean of London Business School, praised "the verve with which he lived".

In the US, Dipak Jain, dean of the Kellogg School at Northwestern University, said: "Sumantra was a philosopher as well as a mentor and friend to me throughout the years."

Prof Ghoshal was married to Sushmita and the couple had two sons. 

Written by Della Bradshaw & Khozem Merchant