Hayagreeva Rao is the Atholl McBean Professor of Organisational Behaviour. He studies meaning-making under conditions of uncertainty. He is the co-author with Bob Sutton of Scaling Up Excellence. The book is a Wall Street Journal best seller, and was included in the best business books to read in 2014 by Financial Times, Inc. Magazine, Amazon, Forbes, Washington Post, and Library Journal.
In 2024, Rao and Sutton also authored another book, The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder (St. Martin’s Press), which has been well received in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Fast Company. The book was chosen by the Next Big Idea Book Club, curated by Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Dan Pink, and Susan Cain, as one of the two best books for the 2024 season. The book was also chosen as one of the best business books of 2024 by the Financial Times. In July 2026, Rao and Henrich Greve co-authored CTRL+ALT+DOUBT, a research monograph (Oxford University Press) that decodes the language of online conspiracy talk using large language models.
His book:
Edges of Elsewhere: A Life Built Between Worlds (forthcoming)