Rakesh Khurana on the Future of Business Education

Most business schools have been shaped by a narrow pursuit of shareholder value, eroding the moral purpose of leadership and education itself. But what if the dominant paradigm isn’t fixed—and can be transformed? In this episode, Harvard’s Rakesh Khurana challenges the myth of market-driven education and reveals how universal narratives around efficiency and profit are hollowing out human meaning in organizations.

You’ll discover the historical roots of today’s business education model—how it shifted from a moral enterprise rooted in societal responsibility to a market-centric system that devalues judgment and moral agency. Khurana unpacks the rise of neoliberalism, the institutional forces behind it, and how management became a dispassionate technical skill rather than a moral profession. He argues that over-reliance on bureaucratic logic and metrics has led us to an identity crisis—both in higher education and society at large.We break down the urgent need to reimagine leadership as a moral and professional judgment—grounded in community, diversity, and purpose. Khurana shares concrete steps to revive the sacred role of universities: fostering intellectual transformation, nurturing purpose-driven leadership, and restoring institutions as moral anchors. He emphasizes the importance of expanding access, cultivating pluralism, and embracing a broad, humanistic vision of education that elevates meaning over metrics.

This episode is essential listening for anyone who cares about restoring the purpose of leadership and education in a fractured world. If you believe that organizations should serve human needs—not just shareholder greed—Khurana’s insights will inspire you to rethink the future of business and higher education. Because transforming institutions begins with understanding how they were shaped—and how they can be reshaped again.

Business Professor, Tech entrepreneur,  and university dean—Khura­na combines scholarly rigor with practical wisdom, offering a compelling call to rekindle the moral foundation of leadership. His work helps us see that the next shift starts within the core of our institutions—and in our collective imagination.