Culture Matters

Dr. Sebastian Wernicke is a data scientist, strategist, and author of Data Inspired . With a background spanning bioinformatics, strategy consulting, and data science, he has spent much of his career helping organizations turn data into business value. His work explores a fundamental question: why do some organizations succeed with data while others struggle despite investing heavily in technology...

Biju Dominic is Chief Evangelist at Fractal Analytics and co-founder of FinalMile Consulting. For more than three decades, he has pursued a central question: what truly shapes human behaviour? After spending seventeen years in advertising, Biju began combining cognitive neuroscience, behavioural economics, and design to develop new approaches to behaviour change. His new book, MicroStimuli: The Ne...

Stephen Brozovich is an Executive in Residence—People and Culture—at Amazon Web Services. He joined Amazon in 1999, long before it became the organization we know today, and has spent more than two decades working across technology, product development, talent management, leadership development, and organizational culture. Today, as part of AWS’s Executives in Residence team, Stephen helps senior...

Juliet Schor is an economist, sociologist, and Professor of Sociology at Boston College. Over a career spanning more than four decades, she has studied working time, consumer culture, sustainability, and the changing nature of work. She is the author of several influential books, including Four Days a Week . As a lead researcher on global four-day-week trials involving hundreds of companies across...

S. “Venky” Venkatesh is a seasoned business and HR leader, former Group CHRO of RPG Enterprises, board member, and advisor to CXOs. Over a career spanning more several decades, he has worked across professionally managed multinational companies and some of India’s leading promoter- and family-led organizations, including RPG Group, Arvind Lifestyle Brands, and Vedanta. Today, through his advisory...

Saurabh Nigam is a seasoned HR leader, entrepreneur, and author of People Powered Startups . Over the last two decades, he has helped build and scale people functions across some of India's most prominent startups and high-growth organizations, including Snapdeal and Beroe. Today, through his advisory work, he partners with founders and leadership teams to build organizations where people and busi...

Dr. Marcus Ranney is a physician, entrepreneur, explorer, and founder of Human Edge, a longevity science company focused on helping individuals and organizations improve health, energy, and performance. He is the author of At the Human Edge and Good Stress, Bad Stress , and has led scientific expeditions to some of the world's most extreme environments, including Mount Everest. In this episode, Ma...

Rebecca Hinds is Head of the Work AI Institute at Glean, a researcher of organizational behavior and collaboration, and the author of the bestselling book Your Best Meeting Ever . Over the course of her career, Rebecca has studied how people work together, how teams make decisions, and how technology shapes collaboration. In this episode, Rebecca joins Subbu to discuss why meetings have become one...

Jim Harter is Chief Scientist for Workplace Management and Wellbeing at Gallup and one of the world’s leading researchers on employee engagement, wellbeing, and organizational performance. For decades, Jim has studied how people experience work—what helps them thrive, what drives performance, and why some organizations consistently create stronger cultures than others. His work has shaped global c...

R. Gopalakrishnan (Gopal) is one of India’s most respected business leaders, having held senior roles at Unilever and the Tata Group. Over the years, he has also become a thoughtful voice on leadership, learning, and life through his writing and speaking. Nirmala Isaac is a doctoral scholar whose work spans organizational behavior, leadership, and sustainability, with a deep interest in trust and...

Vinay Kumar is a leadership facilitator and organizational development expert who has spent close to two decades helping leaders and organizations navigate complex conversations, build alignment, and strengthen culture. He’s the Founder Director of C2C OD and has been the global chair of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF). In this episode, Vinay and Subbu explore facilitation not...

Pawan Kumar Marella is a global business leader whose career spans sales, marketing, strategy, and general management across India, Africa, and the UK. From starting out in sales at Unilever—despite training in engineering and finance—to setting up business operations in Ethiopia and later working in corporate strategy in London, Pawan’s journey reflects both range and reinvention. He is also the...

Jim Harter is Chief Scientist of Workplace Management and Well-being at Gallup — one of the world’s most trusted voices in understanding what makes work, and workers, thrive. Over three decades at Gallup, Jim has helped shape how organizations across the globe make sense of engagement, performance, and well-being. His research has defined the modern science of engagement. From pioneering the first...

Professor Malissa Clark is one of the world’s leading scholars on workaholism, burnout, and the science of healthy work. She is Professor and Head of Psychology Department at the University of Georgia, where she also leads the Healthy Work Lab . Her research has redefined how we think about overwork as a multidimensional phenomenon with deep consequences for individuals, families, and organization...

Daniel Pink is one of the world’s most influential thinkers on work, behavior, and human motivation. He is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers—including Drive , When , and The Power of Regret —books that have shaped how leaders, educators, and individuals approach purpose, timing, decision-making, and the emotions that drive us. Across a career that spans law, politics, speechwriting, a...

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang is a historian, futurist, and one of the most compelling voices rethinking the way we work, rest, and create. He is the author of Rest , Shorter , and The Distraction Addiction —books that have reshaped the global conversation on productivity and wellbeing. Alex has worked across academia, tech, publishing, and firms like the 4 Day Week Gobal. Today, he leads programs with 4....

Michael Morris is the Chavkin-Chang Professor of Leadership at Columbia Business School, and one of the world’s leading scholars at the intersection of culture, cognition, and leadership. A cultural psychologist by training, his research has shaped how we understand identity, influence, and the psychology of change across global contexts. Over a career spanning decades, Prof. Morris has published...

Amy Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, and one of the world’s foremost thinkers on organizational behavior. Best known for her pioneering work on psychological safety, Amy’s research has transformed how leaders build trust, foster learning, and create high-performing teams. Her books—including The Fearless Organization and Right Kind of Wro...

Ankur Mehra is a creator economist, bestselling author of Pixels to Profits , and one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices on the creator economy. With a diverse career spanning the armed forces, big tech, and media, Ankur brings a rare blend of structure, strategy, and storytelling to the world of digital creators. He has worked with platforms like Facebook and Instagram, built media partnerships with cultur...

Gurucharan Singh Gandhi (Guru) is the CHRO of Vodafone Idea Limited and has held leadership roles at Madura, Aditya Birla Capital, Max Life Insurance, and more. He’s the author of Kabir in Corporates and Careerathon , and a passionate marathon runner who brings a poetic clarity to life and work. In this episode Guru and I explore how careers are best viewed as long-distance runs rather than short-...

Dave Ulrich is ranked #1 management guru by Business Week , named one of the Top 10 Creative People in Business by Fast Company , a Top 5 Executive Coach by Forbes , and consistently featured on the Thinkers50 list of the world’s most influential business thinkers. Dave has written over 30 books, shaped the field of HR as we know it, and continues to inspire with his unwavering passion for ideas w...

Aruna Gopakumar is the founder of leadership consulting firm Navgati and The School Of You. Aruna is also co-author of the book 'And How Do you Feel About That’ . She has spent over two decades helping leaders navigate complexity, build emotional intelligence, and create meaningful impact. She is a Master Certified Coach (MCC) with the International Coaching Federation (ICF), and also an expert in...

Tessa West is a Professor of Psychology at New York University and a leading expert in the science of interpersonal communication. This is the second time that Professor West has come on this show – to listen to our first conversation, check out episode 12 of this podcast. In this episode, we dive deep into her latest book – Job Therapy, How Do You Find Work That Works For You Key topics covered -...

Deepak Jayaraman's mission is to help people play to potential. He strives to do it through his advisory work as a coach and sounding board, as a podcaster and as an author. As an advisor, Deepak works with Leaders and Organizations with a growth mindset and helps them play to their full potential. Deepak has been curating the Play to Potential Podcast since Dec 2016. In this episode, Subbu and De...

James is the founder of Behavioral science practice firm More Than Now. He’s an expert in bringing behavioral science into organizations, and is changing the workplace one experiment at a time. Priya is a co-conspirator behavioural scientist and works closely with James at More Than Now. She is a London School of Economics and Harvard University graduate, and is particularly interested in the fiel...