Karthik Ramanna: Leading in outrage

What makes you feel a sense of outrage?

It’s everywhere we look. Be it directed at institutions, especially those in politics, geopolitical conflicts, business opposing communities, or different aspects of society. That’s why in this episode I am joined by Professor Karthik Ramanna, an expert and author on the age of outrage. We explore the impacts outrage has on organisations and the individual, as well as how leaders can respond to it in their context.

Karthik shares his experience of working with business and political leaders from across very significant divides, such as Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, India and Pakistan and many more. He gives insight into how to approach challenging situations to turn down the temperature and make sense of the moment.

Karthik imparts a lot of wisdom on the art of de-escalation that you can use in your organisation too.

You’ll hear about:

• How Karthik gets a handle on outrage
• Who CEOs need to be in the outrage context
• Who to reach out to during big shifts
• How to focus on the catalytic actors
• Balancing different versions of yourself
• Creating thoughtful considered dialogue
• What do you do in heated moments?
• What does Karthik do when outraged?
• The impact Karthik wants to have on the world

More about Karthik

Karthik Ramanna is Professor of Business & Public Policy at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government and a fellow at St John’s College. He teaches a popular course at Oxford on managing organisations in polarised times, which led to his 2024 book The Age of Outrage.

An expert on business-government relations, sustainable capitalism, and corporate reporting and auditing, Professor Ramanna studies how organisations and leaders build trust with stakeholders. His scholarship has won numerous awards, including the Journal of Accounting and Economics Best Paper Prize, the Harvard Business Review McKinsey Award for ‘groundbreaking management thinking’, and three times the international Case Centre’s prizes for ‘outstanding case-writing’, dubbed by the Financial Times as ‘the business school Oscars.’

• Karthik’s profile
• The Case Centre on Public Leadership
• Karthik’s book The Age of Outrage: How to Lead in a Polarised World