When you end an interview with a Harvard Business School professor and he tells you your questions made him think, it kinda makes your day (or maybe your week, your month, your year, or, perhaps your life)!

Though we may not see eye-to-eye on all the issues he presented, I consider the chance to chat with him extremely rewarding and fulfilling.

The professor I’m talking about is Ranjay Gulati. He’s written numerous books, his latest of which is called Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies.

He says few business topics have aroused more skepticism in recent years than the notion of corporate purpose, and for good reason. Too many companies deploy purpose, or a reason for being, as a promotional vehicle to make themselves feel virtuous and to look good to the outside world.

Some, he says, only have foggy ideas about wha tpurpose is and conflate it witih stratgy and otehr concepts like “mission,” “vision,” and “values.”

Ranjay takes readers inside some of the world’s most purposeful companies to understand the secrets to their successes.

I hope you’ll click the play button below to learn more about Ranjay and his work. For a summary, just keep scrolling.

Join in on our chat below

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

In today’s episode, Ranjay and I chat about:

* How the concept of purpose applies to companies as opposed to human beings* His belief that companies and individual leaders need to take on politically sensitive issues* The benefits of Practical Idealism, how it differs from Conscious Capitalism, on why the former is better* And lots more!

Order Ranjay’s Book

You can order your copy of Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies right now!

Consider Ordering My New Book Too!

Purchase a copy of my new book (written with Jesse Wisnewski) Read to Lead: The Simple Habit That Expands Your Influence and Boosts Your Career. There, you can also download the introduction and first chapter for free!

Ranjay in Action

Books Ranjay Recommends

The Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham

424: Deep Purpose is the Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies with Ranjay Gulati

Read to Lead Podcast