Jayesh has developed a reputation for encouraging people to think differently. His classes at Henley Business School aren't about memorising management models or simply finding the "right" answer. They are about helping managers become more comfortable navigating uncertainty, recognising patterns, and developing the confidence to make better decisions.
It sometimes catches students off guard.
"If someone asks me a question, my goal isn't to rattle off an answer," he says. "It's to help them think differently about the question they're asking."
That is entirely intentional.
"I've always believed that if I simply give someone an answer, they've just been exposed to my thinking. If they work their way towards the answer themselves, they've developed their own," says Jayesh.
To him, education has never been about transferring knowledge from lecturer to student. It's about taking something that seems complex and helping people make sense of it.
All of us have different ways of seeing the world
Every person arrives with different experiences and assumptions. Good learning creates the space for people to challenge those assumptions, connect ideas in new ways and discover they are capable of solving problems they once thought were beyond them.
That philosophy has found a natural home at Henley, where the emphasis on personal mastery was something that immediately resonated with Jayesh.
"Henley doesn't simply teach management concepts," he says. "Personal growth isn't treated as a separate topic. It's woven into every programme, so learning changes how people think, not just what they know."
Perhaps surprisingly, becoming a lecturer was not part of the plan.
Having originally studied Computer Science, Jayesh began his career in software development before moving into systems, operations management, strategic management and business consulting. Looking back, the journey explains a great deal about the way he approaches executive education today.
Rather than spending his career inside a single discipline, he has worked across technology, business and leadership, watching organisations wrestle with the challenge of translating strategy into meaningful action.
"I've never really seen technology, innovation, strategy and people as separate conversations," he says. "The most interesting challenges usually happen where they overlap."
If there has been one constant throughout Jayesh's career, it has been curiosity.
Whether exploring new technologies, facilitating executive programmes or coaching leaders through complex organisational challenges, Jayesh has always found himself drawn to the spaces where different disciplines meet. It is perhaps why his teaching spans Systems Thinking, Innovation, Strategy, Critical Thinking, Digital Transformation and, increasingly, Artificial Intelligence. He isn't interested in teaching subjects in isolation; he's interested in helping people understand how they connect.
Looking back even further, that curiosity was probably nurtured much earlier than he realised.
Both of his parents were teachers who encouraged creativity and independent thinking in their classes. His father was an early adopter of technology, introducing computers into biology classes during the 1980s and using them to develop classroom material long before most educators saw their potential.
"Seeing that in action probably planted a seed that I only recognised years later."
Ask Jayesh what has occupied most of his thinking recently and the conversation quickly turns to Artificial Intelligence. Not because he's fascinated by the technology itself. "People often think the technology is the difficult part," he says. "I actually think that’s the easy part."
"The real challenge is understanding how people use it, how organisations adapt to it, and what it means for the decisions we make every day. Technology changes quickly. Human behaviour doesn’t change nearly as fast."
There is one question he finds himself returning to repeatedly. "How do we prepare managers to exercise better judgement in a world where machines can increasingly provide information?"
Responding to that challenge requires managers to understand context, ask better questions, recognise unintended consequences, balance evidence with experience and make decisions that consider people as well as data.
Rather than replacing human judgement, Jayesh believes Artificial Intelligence has the potential to elevate it. His curiosity has naturally led him towards another emerging area of interest: the relationship between Artificial Intelligence and intellectual property, particularly the questions surrounding creativity, ownership and innovation in an AI-enabled world.
Despite spending much of his professional life exploring technology, Jayesh remains optimistic rather than alarmist.
"We shouldn't fear new technology," he says. "We should understand it well enough to use it thoughtfully."
Outside the classroom, family remains central to Jayesh's life - whether it’s spending time with his wife and son on a padel court, enjoying long walks or simply sharing everyday moments. By his own admission, he's something of a coffee enthusiast, and most days begin (or end) with a stop at a favourite coffee shop.
Perhaps it's no coincidence that many of the conversations about leadership, learning and the future of work begin there too.