Rahaf Harfoush
Digital Anthropologist & NYT Bestselling Author | Executive Director, Red Thread Institute | UN AI Advisory Body Member | On AI, Digital Culture & the Future of Work
Ranjay Gulati
Harvard Business School Professor | Bestselling Author of Deep Purpose & How to Be Bold | Thinkers50 Top-10 Thinker | On Purpose, Courage & Resilient Growth
Ranjay Gulati is a Harvard Business School professor and one of the world's most influential management thinkers on how organizations thrive through good times and bad. Author of Deep Purpose and How to Be Bold, he shows that purpose drives performance and that courage is a learnable skill, not an innate trait. A Thinkers50 top-ten thinker, he gives leaders a research-backed playbook for purpose, resilience, and bold action under uncertainty.
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Ranjay Gulati biography
Ranjay Gulati is one of the world’s most respected authorities on how organizations and leaders thrive in good times and bad. The Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, he has spent his career studying what separates companies that merely survive uncertainty from those that emerge stronger, and translating that research into practical strategy for leaders navigating growth, disruption, and change.
Leadership speaker Ranjay Gulati is best known for two powerful ideas. In Deep Purpose, he made the case that a serious, deeply held sense of purpose is not a soft ideal but a hard-edged driver of performance, energizing employees and building trust with customers and partners. In his most recent book, How to Be Bold: The Surprising Science of Everyday Courage, he draws on more than a decade of research and over a hundred real-life stories, with a foreword by the Dalai Lama, to argue that courage is not an innate trait of a fearless few but a learnable skill any leader or organization can build.
Purpose, Courage, and High Performance
A former head of Harvard’s Organizational Behavior Unit and former chair of its flagship Advanced Management Program, Gulati has been ranked among the world’s most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50, which named him a top-ten thinker and awarded him its 2025 Leadership Award. He also received the Strategic Management Society’s 2024 CK Prahalad Award for scholarly impact on practice. He holds a PhD from Harvard, a master’s from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and degrees in computer science and economics, and taught at Northwestern’s Kellogg School before joining Harvard. He is the author of numerous books and more than twenty Harvard Business Review articles, and his work is consistently ranked among the most relevant to management practice.
As a speaker, Ranjay Gulati gives leaders an evidence-based playbook for building purpose-driven, resilient, and courageous organizations. He speaks on leading through uncertainty, embedding authentic purpose into strategy, taking smart risks amid fear, and building customer-centric organizations that grow through every part of the cycle. Senior audiences leave with rigorous ideas made immediately practical, delivered through the vivid storytelling for which he is known.
Ranjay Gulati Speaking Videos
How Great Leaders Energize Their Organizations | Ranjay Gulati | TEDxBabsonCollege
Ranjay Gulati, Harvard Business School
Ranjay Gulati Keynote Topics
Drawing on his latest book and more than a decade of research, Ranjay Gulati dismantles the myth that courage belongs to a fearless few. He reveals the specific mindsets and strategies that let leaders act decisively in the face of fear and uncertainty, from crafting a guiding narrative to building confidence and staying calm under pressure, and shows how organizations can make bold action a repeatable capability rather than a rare exception.
Purpose is often reduced to a slogan on the wall. Gulati shows why that fails and what genuine, "deep" purpose looks like, a compass that helps organizations navigate trade-offs, energize employees, and build lasting trust with customers and partners. He makes the hard-nosed business case that purpose done right delivers measurable performance, not just goodwill.
Why do some organizations emerge from downturns and disruption stronger while others merely hunker down? Based on his research into thousands of companies across multiple recessions, Gulati shares the strategic choices that separate the two, helping leaders resist the "success trap," take smart risks, and invest boldly when others retreat.
Gulati explores how companies can break down internal silos and reorganize around the customer to build durable, adaptive growth. He offers leaders practical frameworks for aligning strategy, organizational design, and culture so their organizations can stay resilient and competitive as markets shift.
Speaker topics
FAQs on Booking Ranjay Gulati
Why Ranjay Gulati?
Booking Ranjay Gulati gives audiences access to one of the most influential and rigorously grounded voices in modern management. A Harvard Business School professor and former head of its Organizational Behavior Unit, he has spent decades studying how organizations and leaders thrive through uncertainty, and he has distilled that work into two landmark ideas, deep purpose and everyday courage, that speak directly to the challenges leaders face today. Ranked a top-ten global management thinker by Thinkers50 and the recipient of its 2025 Leadership Award, he pairs the credibility of world-class research with a genuine gift for storytelling, making complex ideas immediately useful. He is an ideal speaker for leadership summits, corporate conferences, and organizations navigating growth, disruption, or transformation. To bring Ranjay Gulati to your next event, contact Aurum Speakers Bureau.
What is Ranjay Gulati's concept of "deep purpose"?
Deep purpose is the idea, developed in Ranjay Gulati's 2022 book of the same name, that a serious and authentically held organizational purpose is a powerful driver of performance rather than a marketing slogan. Companies that pursue purpose deeply, he argues, energize their employees, build stronger trust with customers and partners, and use purpose as a compass to navigate difficult trade-offs between stakeholders and between short- and long-term goals, delivering results that benefit both business and society.
What is Ranjay Gulati's book How to Be Bold about?
How to Be Bold: The Surprising Science of Everyday Courage (2025) argues that courage is not an innate trait possessed by a fearless few but a skill anyone can learn. Drawing on more than a decade of research and over a hundred stories, from CEOs to whistleblowers to everyday heroes, and featuring a foreword by the Dalai Lama, Gulati identifies the specific mindsets and strategies that make courageous action possible in the face of fear and uncertainty. The book grew out of his research into why some companies grow stronger after downturns by choosing boldness over retreat.
What topics does leadership speaker Ranjay Gulati cover?
Ranjay Gulati speaks on courage and bold leadership, deep purpose as a driver of performance, leading through uncertainty and turbulence, resilience, and building customer-centric organizations. His keynotes suit leadership summits, corporate conferences, and organizations focused on strategy, culture, and change, where audiences want rigorous, research-based insight delivered with compelling storytelling. To book Ranjay Gulati as a speaker, contact Aurum Speakers Bureau.
How to book Ranjay Gulati as a keynote speaker?
Aurum Speakers Bureau can help you book Ranjay Gulati as a speaker for your next event, conference, or board meeting. Simply fill out our contact form to inquire about Ranjay Gulati's availability for a speaking engagement. One of our booking agents will respond to your request immediately and contact the speaker to let them know you want to hire them. We will assist you with obtaining speaking fees, booking information, and confirming availability for Ranjay Gulati or any other top keynote speaker or celebrity of your choice.
How much is Ranjay Gulati speaking fee?
Ranjay Gulati speaking fees are determined by several factors, including the event's date, whether it's a virtual or in-person event, the duration, format, preparation required for their speech, and more. The same applies to the cost to hire any other top expert speakers and celebrities. The Speaker Fee Range listed on our website is simply a guideline and is subject to change without notice. If you would like to hire Ranjay Gulati to deliver a keynote speech for your event, please fill out the contact form or email us at info@aurumbureau.com with as much detail as possible. One of our experienced agents will get in touch with you and let you know exactly how much it will cost to book Ranjay Gulati.
How can I contact Ranjay Gulati?
We only work with Ranjay Gulati on paid speaking engagements. Aurum Speakers Bureau can assist you in booking Ranjay Gulati and will handle all negotiations, contracts, and logistics associated with having Ranjay Gulati speak at your event. We will be your sole point of contact throughout the process. Get in touch with Aurum Speakers Bureau today, and we will reach out to any motivational speaker or celebrity you want to enquire about speaking at your event. If you wish to contact Ranjay Gulati for any other reason, we will be unable to assist you as we are not authorized to provide personal contact information.
Can I book Ranjay Gulati for a virtual keynote?
Yes, Ranjay Gulati is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book Ranjay Gulati for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
