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Phanish Puranam

Professor of Strategy

Biography

Phanish Puranam is a Professor of Strategy, the Roland Berger Chaired Professor of Strategy and Organisation Design at INSEAD.

Phanish’s research in organization science focuses on how organizations work, and how we can make them work better. His current work focuses on different ways in which intelligent algorithms relate to organizations, in their roles as tools (e.g., machine learning applied to organizational data), team-mates (e.g., human-AI collaboration), and as templates for organizing ( blockchain, metaverse).

Besides publishing his research extensively in peer reviewed journals (see link to Personal Website above), Phanish has also written several books. The Microstructure of Organizations (Oxford University Press, 2018) offers researchers a new perspective on organization design. Phanish’s books for practitioners include Corporate Strategy: Tools for analysis and decisions (co-authored with Bart Vanneste, Cambridge University Press, 2016) which is used as a reference in MBA programs around the world. India Inside (co-authored with Nirmalya Kumar, Harvard Business Review Press, 2012) won critical acclaim for its balanced look at the prospect of India emerging as a global hub for innovation. Recently, he also released Ver1.0 of the free The Organizational Analytics E-Book: A guide to data driven organization design (with Julien Clement). He is currently working on two new books. “Rethinking Organizations” (Penguin Random House Publishers) explores what organizations of the future might look like, in the light of rapid changes in technology and culture, and “Hierarchy in Organizations” reviews what we have learned about the emergence, growth, stability and adaptive properties of hierarchies, as well as their limits.

At INSEAD Phanish Puranam directs the Transforming Your Business with AI programme.

Phanish obtained his PhD at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2001, and was on the faculty of London Business School till 2012. Reflecting his commitment to doctoral training, he has served as the Academic Director for the PhD Program at both London Business School and INSEAD.

Latest posts

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Strategy

To Use AI Tools Smartly, Think Like a Strategist

Phanish Puranam

Consider how specific AI tools will impact your own skills and capabilities.

Strategy

Leave Intuition to the Machines

A. Lawson, M. Lobo, P. Puranam

Is it time for System 3 thinking by humans?

Leadership & Organisations

How to Rapidly Test New Organisation Designs

Phanish Puranam

Instead of blindly adopting industry best practice, companies can use gamified randomised control trials to pilot new organisation designs.

Responsibility

How Organisation Design Can Rescue the SDGs

Phanish Puranam

We're not on track to meet any SDGs by 2030. Organisation designers can help.
4 comments

Leadership & Organisations

ChatGPT and the Future of Business Education

P. Puranam, P. Dutt, P. Wibbens, A. Ovchinnikov, V. Sevcenko, T. Evgeniou, P. Parker

How ChatGPT can help – and hinder – research and learning at business schools.

Leadership & Organisations

Why Hierarchies in Organisations Aren’t All Bad

P. Puranam, Ö. Koçak, D. A. Levinthal

Hierarchical structures can be useful even for teams that need to be agile.
2 comments

Strategy

Can AI Help You Strategise Better?

P. Puranam, P. Sen

Machine learning algorithms can uncover intricate patterns in big data and enable managers to strategise with more confidence.

Leadership & Organisations

Why Communication Breaks Down

P. Puranam, Ö. Koçak

As workplaces become more diverse and work becomes more distributed, it is more important than ever to converge on a common code for effective communication.

Operations

Better Human-AI Collaboration May Depend on Workflow Design

P. Puranam, R. Mehra

Improving how humans work with algorithms could simply be a matter of redesigning workflow.

Leadership & Organisations

Organising in the Metaverse: Five FAQs for Managers

V. F. He, P. Puranam

An explainer on how social interaction in all its forms might take place in the virtual universe.
1 comment

Leadership & Organisations

Creating People-Centric International Organisations With AI

R. McLachlin, K. Tatarinov, T. Ambos, P. Puranam

The United Nations is both a fascinating playground for artificial intelligence applications and a showcase of AI implementation problems and solutions.

Entrepreneurship

The Start-Up Blind Spot That Trips New Ventures

Phanish Puranam

Having a great business plan is not enough. Start-ups also need good organisation design.

Leadership & Organisations

Making Sure That Everyone Knows Their Place

A. Yap, N. Madan, P. Puranam

Why formal structures and greater diversity create status disagreements and how to fix the issue.

Leadership & Organisations

Should Employees Be Allowed to Choose What They Want to Do?

P. Puranam, M. Raveendran

The degree of specialisation is the deciding factor.

Entrepreneurship

How Should Humans Collaborate With AI?

Phanish Puranam

When bringing algorithms and employees together, businesses should respect rather than ignore human preferences.
1 comment

Strategy

A ‘Lab in the Field’ Approach to Evidence-Based Management

P. Puranam, J. Singh, H. Rao

Simplified experimentation in the field may be the best of both worlds, provided its results are viewed with the proper perspective.

Leadership & Organisations

Prospects and Pitfalls for the Post-Pandemic Organisation

Phanish Puranam

Big changes are coming for organisations and organisation designs. Whether they will be for good or ill depends on how leaders confront three key possibilities uncovered by the pandemic.
1 comment

Leadership & Organisations

Organisational Data: The Silver Lining in the Covid-19 Cloud

P Puranam, J. Clément

The shift to virtual working has produced a data boom that could revolutionise organisations – if they know what to do with it.
2 comments

Leadership & Organisations

What Newly Remote Teams Need, Right Now

P. Puranam, M. Minervini

Our survey reveals that in the transition to remote working, the technology is fine but the organisation needs help.
1 comment

Leadership & Organisations

Coronavirus Has Taken Remote Work Mainstream. Now What?

P. Puranam, M. Minervini

How organisations survive the COVID-19 stress test will reveal how ready they are for the future of work.
2 comments

Operations

Where AI Can Help Your Business (and Where It Can’t)

Phanish Puranam

Your firm produces data, so surely it can benefit from applying AI, right? Wrong. Here are five questions to ask yourself about whether a business problem is “AI-solvable”.
1 comment

Leadership & Organisations

Enlightened by Randomness

Phanish Puranam & Prothit Sen

To train AI properly, organisations may have to take a drastic step: start making decisions with no rhyme or reason.
1 comment

Leadership & Organisations

When Is Cool Office Design More Than Window Dressing?

Phanish Puranam & Agustin Chevez

New trends in workplace design may turn out to be as game-changing as the ongoing technological revolution.
6 comments

Leadership & Organisations

When Talking the Talk Is Enough to Change Culture

Phanish Puranam & Özgecan Koçak

Careful cultural interventions can impart beliefs about collaboration that become self-fulfilling prophecies.
1 comment

Leadership & Organisations

(Re)-Designing Organisations in the Age of Algorithms

Strategy execution still requires organisation design and development skills. But here’s what it may look like in a world of big data and AI.
3 comments

Leadership & Organisations

Why Agile May Be Fragile

Phanish Puranam & Julien Clement

The hype around Agile organisations needs some debunking, so that Agile’s actual value can be salvaged.
4 comments

Leadership & Organisations

Is It Time to Retire the Org Chart?

The boxes-and-arrows approach to organisation design may have outlived its use.
1 comment

Leadership & Organisations

How to Make Corporate Hierarchy More Likable

P. Puranam, E. Lee

People clearly prefer flatter organisations, with less power distance between the tip and the base of the pyramid.

Leadership & Organisations

The Shape of Hierarchy and Why It Matters

Phanish Puranam & Eucman Lee

Today’s organisations are shaped more like Christmas trees than pyramids.
3 comments

Leadership & Organisations

Can We Fix Hierarchy?

P. Puranam, E. Lee

Societies need new organisational design paradigms, if we are to overcome the urgent challenges ahead.
2 comments