

Corner Office Conversation
The Economic Times
Corner Office Conversation is The Economic Times’ flagship interview podcast featuring unfiltered, one-on-one conversations with some of India and the world’s most powerful business leaders.
Hosted by ET’s top journalists and editors, this fortnightly show goes beyond headlines and press releases to explore how CEOs and founders think, decide, and lead in an era of disruption.
From Marc Benioff (Salesforce), Dara Khosrowshahi (Uber), and Roland Busch (Siemens) to Adar Poonawalla (Serum Institute), Suresh Narayanan (Nestlé India), and Ravi Kumar S (Cognizant), these conversations uncover personal leadership playbooks, global strategy pivots, lessons from failures, and bold visions for the future — across industries like tech, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, and consumer goods.
New episodes drop every alternate Monday.
Hosted by ET’s top journalists and editors, this fortnightly show goes beyond headlines and press releases to explore how CEOs and founders think, decide, and lead in an era of disruption.
From Marc Benioff (Salesforce), Dara Khosrowshahi (Uber), and Roland Busch (Siemens) to Adar Poonawalla (Serum Institute), Suresh Narayanan (Nestlé India), and Ravi Kumar S (Cognizant), these conversations uncover personal leadership playbooks, global strategy pivots, lessons from failures, and bold visions for the future — across industries like tech, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, and consumer goods.
New episodes drop every alternate Monday.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 23, 2026 • 34min
Corner Office Conversation with G.V. Prasad, Co-Chairman and Managing Director Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd
G.V. Prasad has spent over thirty years at the helm of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories — long enough to know where the opportunities were missed and where the potential and challenges lie. In a candid conversation with ET’s pharma editor Vikas Dandekar on Corner Office Conversation, the Co-Chairman and Managing Director pulls no punches: India is the generic pharmacy of the world, not the pharmacy of the world, and that distinction matters. He reflects on regulatory crises weathered, acquisitions never made, and an innovation pipeline that remained perpetually underfunded. On AI, he is deliberately unsentimental — helpful at the margins, not yet transformational. What he does believe in, firmly and urgently, is Dr. Reddy's next act: a decisive pivot from incremental generics to innovation-led growth, with a hard target and a ticking clock.You can follow Vikas Dandekar on his social media: X and Linkedin and read her Newspaper Articles.Listen to Corner Office Conversation: Corner Office Conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO, of Zoho Corporation, Corner Office Conversation with Gunjan Soni, Country Managing Director, Youtube India, Corner Office Conversation with Elizabeth Reid, Head of Search, Google, Corner Office Conversation with Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Peak XV & Surge and much more. Catch the latest episode of “Corner Office Conversation” on: Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts,and wherever you get your podcasts from.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Feb 25, 2026 • 29min
Arvind Krishna: Cutting Through the AI Noise
In a wide-ranging conversation with host Surabhi Agarwal, IBM's chairman, president and CEO Arvind Krishna addresses the questions every technology leader and IT professional in India is wrestling with right now. He pushes back on AI doomsday narratives for software services, makes a compelling case for why hybrid cloud and mainframe architecture remain indispensable, and shares his candid take on job displacement, quantum computing's commercial horizon, and what India's sovereign AI strategy must focus on. He also offers a measured reading of global economic uncertainty, tariffs, and why 2026 could surprise on the upside for technology spending. Listen in:You can follow Surabhi Agarwal on her Linkedin, X profiles and read her Newspaper Articles. Listen to Corner Office Conversation: Corner Office Conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO, of Zoho Corporation, Corner Office Conversation with Gunjan Soni, Country Managing Director, Youtube India, Corner Office Conversation with Elizabeth Reid, Head of Search, Google, Corner Office Conversation with Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Peak XV & Surge and much more. Catch the latest episode of “Corner Office Conversation” on: Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts,and wherever you get your podcasts from.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Feb 23, 2026 • 20min
Corner Office Conversation with Dilip Shanghvi, Chairman of Sun Pharma and Glenn Saldanha, Managing Director at Glenmark Pharma
In a candid, unscripted exchange, India’s pharma titans peeled back the mythology of overnight success to reveal a harder truth: conviction compounded over decades. What began as two products and a bet on neglected therapy areas evolved into a multibillion-dollar enterprise riding India’s epidemiological shift. Innovation, they argued, is a long game—scarred by failed trials, investor backlash, and capital droughts—yet redeemed by landmark deals and scientific persistence. In this episode, host Vikas Dandekar talks to Dilip Shanghvi, Chairman of Sun Pharma and Glenn Saldanha, Managing Director at Glenmark Pharma about regulatory reforms, AI acceleration, and a renewed policy push, the message was clear: India stands at the cusp of a pharmaceutical inflection point—if it dares to back its pipeline as boldly as its past.Listen on:Listen to Corner Office Conversation: Corner Office Conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO, of Zoho Corporation, Corner Office Conversation with Gunjan Soni, Country Managing Director, Youtube India, Corner Office Conversation with Elizabeth Reid, Head of Search, Google, Corner Office Conversation with Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Peak XV & Surge and much more. Catch the latest episode of “Corner Office Conversation” on: Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts,and wherever you get your podcasts from.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Feb 16, 2026 • 23min
Corner office Conversation with T Krishnakumar, Director of Reliance Consumer Products
In a market long dominated by premium playbooks, Director of Reliance Consumer Products, T Krishnakumar is scripting a different FMCG story. Handpicked by Mukesh Ambani to build Reliance Consumer Products from scratch, he talks to host Ratna Bhushan about his strategy: targeting India's 500–600 million middle-class consumers, Krishnakumar is betting big on affordability at scale—a counterintuitive move in an inflationary environment. From resurrecting legacy brands like Campa to building Asia's largest AI-powered food parks and expanding to five million outlets, RCPL blends startup agility with conglomerate resources. As inflation eases and consumption revives, the critical question emerges: can an unwavering focus on value disrupt incumbents and influence India's consumption landscape for the next decade?Listen to Corner Office Conversation: Corner Office Conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO, of Zoho Corporation, Corner Office Conversation with Gunjan Soni, Country Managing Director, Youtube India, Corner Office Conversation with Elizabeth Reid, Head of Search, Google, Corner Office Conversation with Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Peak XV & Surge and much more. Catch the latest episode of “Corner Office Conversation” on: Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts,and wherever you get your podcasts from.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Feb 9, 2026 • 31min
Corner Office Conversation with Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Peak XV & Surge
India's AI revolution demands strategic vision beyond enthusiasm. Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to Rajan Anand, Managing Director of Peak XV and Surge a former Microsoft India head and Google VP shaping India's venture landscape. With 120 unicorns and 300 IPOs last year, India is poised for transformation. Anand's thesis: India needs localized, hyper-affordable AI models—not trillion-parameter ones. Predicting fifty AI unicorns by 2030, he advocates computational sovereignty through infrastructure investments in firms like Sarvam. Rajan also talks about Peak XV’s path after its split with Sequoia Capital, past governance issues at its investees and guardrails to avoid them and the recent spate of senior level exits in the company. Listen in:You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: Twitter and LinkedinListen to Corner Office Conversation: Corner Office Conversation with Knight Frank’s William Beardmore-Gray and Shishir Baijal, Corner Office Conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO, of Zoho Corporation, Corner Office Conversation with Gunjan Soni, Country Managing Director, Youtube India, Corner Office Conversation with Elizabeth Reid, Head of Search, Google and much more. Catch the latest episode of “Corner Office Conversation” on: Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts,and wherever you get your podcasts from.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jan 26, 2026 • 27min
Corner Office Conversation With Prashant Warier, Ankit Modi and Preetham Putha of Qure.ai
Qure.ai is transforming routine medical imaging into early disease detection at unprecedented scale. Processing nearly 1,000 patients per hour across 105 countries, the startup has made preliminary radiology reports at India’s AIIMS and CMC Vellore AI-powered often flagging diseases physicians weren’t even looking for. In this conversation, Vikas Dandekar speaks with Prashant Warier Co-founder & CEO, Ankit Modi, Founding Member and Chief Product Officer and Preetham Putha, Founding Member and Chief AI Officer about how Qure.ai is reimagining diagnostics. Their breakthrough includes risk-scoring algorithms that detect high-risk lung nodules on standard chest X-rays, achieving a 54% CT-confirmed malignancy rate. From TB screening programs in Mumbai. where their tools uncovered 35% more cases for lung cancer detection in US hospitals, Qure.ai now holds 19 FDA clearances and WHO endorsement for autonomous AI diagnosis. Founded in 2016 and trained on over 1.5 billion anonymized images, Qure.ai has published clinical evidence in The Lancet and Nature. With current revenues of ₹200 crore, the company is targeting profitability within two years while scaling toward its ambition of impacting 1 billion lives by 2030.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jan 12, 2026 • 26min
Corner Office Conversation with Girish Tanti, Co-Founder & Vice Chairman, Suzlon
Suzlon Energy controls a third of India's wind market, but co-founder and vice chairman Girish Tanti isn't celebrating. In this conversation with host Anirban Chowdhury, he confronts hard questions: Why has India tapped only 4% of its wind potential despite three decades of operations? Can the sector scale from 6 gigawatts annually to the 10+ needed to meet 2030 targets? And will promised AI data centers overwhelm renewable capacity before it's built? Tanti reveals truths about offshore wind economics, the two-year lag between planning and execution that bottlenecks growth, and why financial restructuring forced Suzlon to often choose stability over speed. He also makes an argument: with 75% local manufacturing content, India's wind sector is better positioned against supply shocks than its solar counterpart. From debunking resource myths to dissecting smart factory ROI, this is wind energy without the greenwash. Listen in.You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: Twitter and LinkedinListen to Corner Office Conversation: Corner Office Conversation with Knight Frank’s William Beardmore-Gray and Shishir Baijal, Corner Office Conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO, of Zoho Corporation, Corner Office Conversation with Gunjan Soni, Country Managing Director, Youtube India, Corner Office Conversation with Elizabeth Reid, Head of Search, Google and much more. Catch the latest episode of “Corner Office Conversation” on: Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts,and wherever you get your podcasts from.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dec 29, 2025 • 24min
Corner Office Conversation with Tobias Meyer, CEO, DHL Group
Global trade is entering a more complicated phase. It is no longer outpacing global GDP, and the ideas that once drove seamless globalization are increasingly under pressure. In this episode, host Anirban Chowdhury speaks with Tobias Meyer, CEO of DHL Group, to cut through the rhetoric around “deglobalization” and focus on what is actually happening to trade flows and supply chains. Rather than collapsing, supply chains are being reworked—spread across more locations, stretched across longer routes, and shaped by political risk as much as cost. The conversation examines how US trade policy and intensifying strategic competition with China are influencing manufacturing choices and capital allocation. India and South Asia appear as potential beneficiaries, but not without limits imposed by infrastructure gaps, cost structures, and execution challenges. The episode also looks beyond policy, into logistics resilience, technology adoption, and the physical realities that still constrain commerce. You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: Twitter and LinkedinListen to Corner Office Conversation: Corner Office Conversation with Knight Frank’s William Beardmore-Gray and Shishir Baijal, Corner Office Conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO, of Zoho Corporation, Corner Office Conversation with Gunjan Soni, Country Managing Director, Youtube India, Corner Office Conversation with Elizabeth Reid, Head of Search, Google and much more. Catch the latest episode of “Corner Office Conversation” on: Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts,and wherever you get your podcasts from. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

11 snips
Dec 22, 2025 • 26min
Corner Office Conversation with Stefan Oelrich, Head of Pharmaceuticals Division, Bayer AG
Stefan Oelrich, Head of Pharmaceuticals at Bayer AG, discusses the evolving pharmaceutical landscape characterized by the shift of innovation from Europe to the US and China. He advocates for faster regulations to enhance patient access and shares insights on Bayer's strategy to offset revenue losses from blockbuster drugs. Oelrich highlights India's potential as a testing ground for affordability and access while emphasizing the importance of innovation over size. He also outlines Bayer's ambitions in cell and gene therapies, aiming to reach patients swiftly with new breakthrough treatments.

Dec 8, 2025 • 19min
Corner Office Conversation: Diego Bianchi,, Vice President, Global Hubs, Sazerac
Bourbon is having a moment and Sazerac wants India to be its next big frontier. In this episode, of the Corner Office Conversation ET’s Ratna Bhushan talks to Diego Bianchi, VP,Global Hubs at Sazerac, who takes us inside Kentucky’s historic Buffalo Trace Distillery to understand how the 200-year-old American spirits giant plans to grow in a market long ruled by Scotch. Bianchi breaks down the company’s India strategy: educating new drinkers, betting on cocktail culture, expanding distribution, and building brand stories that resonate with a young, curious consumer base. He also weighs in on tariff cuts, pricing pressures, regulatory challenges, and why India is now one of Sazerac’s most important growth markets. Can bourbon move from the fringes to the mainstream in India? This conversation explores the stakes and the storytelling behind that push.Tune In.You can follow Ratna Bhushan on her Linkedin, X profiles and read her Newspaper Articles. Listen to Corner Office Conversation: Corner Office Conversation with Knight Frank’s William Beardmore-Gray and Shishir Baijal, Corner Office Conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO, of Zoho Corporation, Corner Office Conversation with Gunjan Soni, Country Managing Director, Youtube India, Corner Office Conversation with Elizabeth Reid, Head of Search, Google and much more. Catch the latest episode of “Corner Office Conversation” on: Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts,and wherever you get your podcasts from.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.


