Ranjay Gulati is the Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration and the former Unit Head of the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. He is an expert on leadership, strategy, and organizational issues in firms. His recent work explores leadership and strategic challenges for building high-growth organizations in turbulent markets. Some of his prior work has focused on the enablers and implications of within-firm and inter-firm collaboration. He has looked at when and how firms should leverage greater connectivity within and across their boundaries to enhance performance.

Professor Gulati is the former Chair of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. He has directed several executive education programs on such topics as Building and Leading Customer Centric Organizations, Leadership in Turbulent Markets, Managing Strategic Alliances, and Sustaining Competitive Advantage. He is also active in custom executive education. He has received several awards for teaching, including the Best Professor Award for teaching in the MBA and executive MBA programs at the Kellogg School where he was on the faculty prior to coming to Harvard.

His most recent book, Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High Performance Companies offers a compelling reassessment and defense of purpose as a management ethos, documenting the vast performance gains and social benefits that become possible when firms get purpose right. Based on extensive field research, he shows how deep purpose companies energize their enterprise by inspiring employees and fostering greater loyalty and trust with customers and partners. Purpose is also a compass with which these firms navigate the inevitable tradeoffs across stakeholders more deliberately and effectively and balance their short- and long-term goals.

Professor Gulati advises and speaks to large and small corporations around the globe. He has served on the advisory boards of several companies, appeared as an expert witness in business litigations, and has been a frequent guest on CNBC. 

Professor Gulati holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, master’s degree in Management from M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management, and two bachelor's degrees, in Computer Science and Economics, from Washington State University and St. Stephens College, New Delhi, respectively. He lives in Newton, Massachusetts.