Senior Vice President, Human Resources · Reliance Jio

Helping leaders decide better, influence wisely and adopt AI with confidence.

Author of ten books, speaker of 5 TEDx talks and Professor of Practice at XLRI and Woxsen. Three decades of building HR at Tata Motors, Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio, told through stories people actually remember.

Harjeet Khanduja speaking with a microphone and clicker TEDx Speaker
10books across 3 domains
30+HR products, with 4 patents
5TEDx talks, reaching 65 countries
30years across 8 industries

Spoken and taught at

  • IIMs
  • IITs
  • XLRI
  • TEDx
  • Toastmasters
  • SHRM
  • NHRD
  • NASSCOM
  • CII
  • Leading organisations

On stage

conferences, classrooms and campuses

Harjeet addressing a lecture hall of professionals
Campus
Harjeet speaking at People Matters TechHR
Harjeet speaking at a conference
Keynote
Harjeet speaking on a panel at a Federation of World Academics event
Cover of How Leaders Influence by Harjeet Khanduja

out in November

New book · November 2026

How Leaders Influence

Some people move a room without a title. This book shows how they do it, and how anyone can learn to. With a foreword by Harsh Goenka. Published by Rupa Publications.

Signature talks

Six talks, each drawn from a book or a career's worth of practice

See the Speaking page

Keynote · Workshop

Influence can take your career to the next level

Why some people get heard and others get ignored, and the simple habits that change which side you are on.

From How Leaders Influence

Keynote · Masterclass

How leaders decide, and the biases that decide for them

Authority bias, comfort zone bias and the other quiet forces in every boardroom, with ways to catch them in time.

From How Leaders Decide (Sage)

Keynote · Workshop

AI and the future of HR

What really changes when AI enters hiring, learning and everyday work. Lessons from building more than 30 HR products.

From 30 years of practice

Keynote · Workshop

The art of storytelling

Why a one minute story beats a forty slide deck. Built on micro stories read over 10 million times on LinkedIn.

From The Storytelling Leader

Workshop · Course

Strategic talent acquisition at scale without losing the human touch

How to find, assess and win talent when the numbers are huge and every candidate still expects to feel seen.

From Hiring Mastermind and the XLRI programme

Workshop · Course

HR analytics leaders will trust

Turning people data into decisions, with clear questions first and dashboards second.

From the HR Analytics course with Keka

Engage with Harjeet

Three ways to engage with Harjeet

For forums, colleges and events

Keynotes and panels

  • Conference keynotes, national and international
  • Literature festivals and book talks
  • Leadership offsites and town halls
See the talks

For HR leaders and colleges

Workshops and courses

  • Leadership courses on influence, decisions and storytelling
  • TA Mastermind with XLRI
  • HR analytics with Keka on Udemy
  • Applied AI for HR with SightsIn Plus
See all eight courses

For HR leaders, founders and innovators

Coaching and advising

  • AI in HR and HR technology
  • Leadership and decision making
  • Talent and hiring at scale
  • HR transformation and governance
Explore coaching and advising

Books

Ten books, one idea. Make HR simple enough to use on Monday morning.

See all books
Harjeet Khanduja's books on a shelf, from How Leaders Decide to the HR Mastermind series, HR Career GPS and Tuktuk Ki Rail
and How Leaders Influence joins them in November
Harjeet handing a copy of Nothing About Business to young readers
Nothing About Business in the hands of new readers. Every book is written to be opened anywhere and used the same day.
Covers of Hiring Mastermind, Employee Retention Mastermind and Employee Management Mastermind
The HR Mastermind series. Hiring, retention and employee management, one practical book each. Get the series
Also in Hindi. Tuktuk Ki Rail, poems by Sardar Tuktuk.
Portrait of Harjeet Khanduja smiling

About Harjeet

An engineer who fell in love with people

Harjeet studied at IIT Roorkee, where he won the Thomson Medal, and later at INSEAD. He has spent three decades building HR at companies in the middle of fast growth.

  • Tata MotorsLed the first Kaizen implementation, recognised by Ratan Tata
  • Reliance RetailPart of the core team that grew from 500 to 28,000 people
  • ConJoin Group (Anthelio), now AtosHelped scale the business from $6 million to $250 million
  • Reliance JioSVP Human Resources since 2012, building the HR function from day one
Read the full story
Behind his serious facade hides a witty and highly humorous person. He is a great asset while supporting CEOs and finds solutions to sticky problems.
Sandip DasIndependent Board Director, STL
Harjeet is an outstanding HR professional. He has a unique ability to connect with both employees and managers on both a personal and business level.
Rick KneipperChairman of the Board, Aquity Holdings
Harjeet brings a sense of accountability in every employee in the organization, be it performance accountability or behavioral accountability.
Vish SivaswamyInvestor, ZAMSTARS and TATVA

What readers say

I can imagine picking it up every day, opening to any page and within a minute be left with a life lesson.
Ankur WarikooEntrepreneur, on Nothing About Business
Nothing about Business, everything about life. These are like zen nuggets.
Ashish VidyarthiActor, on Nothing About Business
Harjeet presents bite sized capsules, shuns the superfluous and draws us within.
N S RajanFormer Group CHRO, Tata Sons

Free for HR leaders

The AI in HR toolkit

A practical starter kit for bringing AI into your HR team, written by someone who has built AI into HR products at scale. Join the letter and it lands in your inbox.

  • Where AI helps in hiring
  • Prompts for everyday HR work
  • Questions to ask HR tech vendors
  • A 90 day adoption plan

Get the AI in HR toolkit

Free. Leave your details and the toolkit comes to your inbox, along with Harjeet's letter with new stories and ideas.

Send me the toolkit

Opens a short Google Form in a new tab. It goes straight to Harjeet.