Sivakumar has been a management academic for a more than a decade (14 years). Prior to his entry into academics he worked with a quasi government organization in a managerial role. He is Bachelors in Agriculture and Masters as well as Doctorate in Management Studies with a Marketing specialization. His current interests are in the area of retailing particularly retail marketing. His book entitled Retail Marketing has been published in Jan 2008.

He was associated with Phillips Manipal University Karnataka State India's BOP program for the past 2 years. His interest has been in the area of marketing of BOP innovations. His specific contribution in the BOP program has been as part of the team on developing the parameters for screening/evaluating marketability of new ideas. In addition he also provided inputs for developing a user friendly web interface for idea evaluators.

Dr Sivakumar has had consulting assignment with organizations like CAMPCO, MAHYCO and Corporation Bank that encompassed areas of agribusiness management, marketing and retailing. He had been for 4 years a regular academic columnist in the B2B magazine RetailBiz targeted at the retailing fraternity. In addition, he has written several other articles in various print media in the area of marketing and agribusiness.

He was selected with a fellowship for an ECCH workshop on case methodology and has himself been a resource person and conducted workshops in case teaching and case writing. He has also been a coordinator and resource person in several faculty development programs across areas like case methodology, marketing, agribusiness, retailing etc.

Prof. Sivakumar has conducted executive education programs for senior executives in companies that include Ashok Leyland, Jindal Vijay Nagar Steel, Corporation Bank, Manipal Press etc. He has been a member of the resource team in corporate college programs for HP, Oracle, Mphasis BPO etc.

He has had his stint in academic administration too handling several portfolios over the tenure of his academic stint so far as PG program Chairman, MIP (Summer Placement) coordinator, student and alumni affairs coordinator etc.

Dr Sivakumar has taught at the Oakland University Michigan State USA and had been a visiting professor at the National Institute of Agricultural Marketing (Govt of India) Jaipur for the past several years.