“After decades of working around inspiring leaders, I've come to believe that wisdom—not certainty—is the antidote to uncertainty. In The Leader's Oracle, Roopa Unnikrishnan offers a refreshing perspective for all of us navigating a world that is unpredictable and complex. Rather than chasing easy answers, she challenges leaders to ask better questions, embrace ambiguity, and find clarity through disciplined inquiry. Drawing from both ancient wisdom and modern leadership experience, Unnikrishnan has created a thoughtful and timely guide for anyone seeking to lead with greater insight, courage, purpose, and humanity. This book invites leaders to think deeply, see clearly, and lead wisely.”

~ Richard Sheridan

"In an age of fast churn algorithms and impatient leadership, Unnikrishnan makes the case for slowing down and asking harder questions. The Leader's Oracle is a generous and warm guide to strategic judgment, grounded in real organizational experience and illuminated by ancient wisdom."

~ Mei Fong, Chief Narrative Officer of Windfall Trust, Pulitzer-winning Wall Street Journal and author of One Child: The Past and Future of China's Most Radical Experiment

“An incredible piece of work. The Leadership Oracle is a very ambitious project adding real value to the strategic leadership cannon. It is intellectual, but still down to earth. It showcases the depth of Unnikrishnan's thinking and her understanding of how organizations succeed. I love this concept: Using ancient oracles, especially Delphi to frame strategic thinking - less prediction, more disciplined inquiry and diagnosis.”

~ Alan Cay Culler, author The Consulting Road

“I’ve experienced Unnikrishnan to be an exceptional thinker from when we first worked together nearly 30 years ago, and have watched her lead from her role of the strategist across a broad array of industries and contexts. The best strategists live deeply in the space of questions and let those questions open up truths that would never arise from simply marching forward. In The Leader's Oracle, she shows us her craft and opens up her wide experience for all of us to learn from — a generous act and a great gift.”

~ Niko Canner, Founder of Incandescent

“The Leader’s Oracle is a sharp, timely call for a leadership grounded in the courage to ask better questions. Unnikrishnan shows why real transformation demands leaders who can hold complexity and think beyond the short term. A compelling book for executives, boards, and changemakers serious about leading with depth, discernment, and vision.”

~ Ruchira Gupta, Emmy-winning journalist, best-selling author, and globally recognized advocate for women’s rights

“I really admire the work Unnikrishnan put into this creative and compelling book, and of course especially her keen interest in getting the references to antiquity right. That, combined with her firsthand experience as a CSO, makes for a powerful and engaging read.”

~ Keyne Cheshire, Joel O. Conarroe Professor of Classics at Davidson College

Positioning Statement

A provocative and timely business strategy book that bridges ancient Delphic wisdom with modern leadership challenges, written by a Rhodes Scholar, competitive shooter, and C-suite executive with two decades at the world’s most consequential organizations. Roopa Unnikrishnan argues that in an era of AI-driven oversimplification, algorithmic short-termism, and relentless operational noise, the leaders who will define the next decade are those who dare to ask better questions—just as the Oracle of Delphi did for centuries. Drawing on Greek and Roman classical thought, The Leader’s Oracle offers a five-part framework for strategic leadership that embraces ambiguity, provokes transformation, and honors long-range thinking. This is not another productivity playbook; it is a call to cultural revolution in how we lead, think, and build organizations.

Market

Market Opportunity and Audience

Perfect for readers of The Infinite Game (Simon Sinek), Thinking, Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman), The Innovator’s Dilemma (Clayton Christensen), and Antifragile (Nassim Taleb)

Business leadership crisis: A 2023 Gallup study found only 23% of employees worldwide are engaged at work, costing the global economy an estimated $8.8 trillion in lost productivity—demand for transformational leadership frameworks has never been higher

AI anxiety in the C-suite: A 2024 PwC CEO Survey found 45% of CEOs believe their company will not be economically viable in 10 years if it continues on its current path; leaders are urgently seeking frameworks that go beyond AI’s simplistic outputs

Strategy deficit: McKinsey research shows that 70% of corporate transformations fail, with poor strategic questioning and short-termism cited as leading causes—Unnikrishnan’s Oracle framework directly addresses this gap

Long-termism movement: BlackRock’s 2024 annual letter, Larry Fink’s advocacy for purpose-driven capitalism, and the B Corp movement reflect growing appetite for books that challenge quarterly-earnings myopia

Decision-making market: The global leadership development market was valued at $52.5 billion in 2023 (Global Industry Analysts) and projected to reach $71.8 billion by 2030; books that offer distinctive frameworks command premium positioning

Classical wisdom resurgence: Sales of titles drawing on ancient philosophy for modern life have surged—Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle Is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy have together sold 2+ million copies; Unnikrishnan extends this trend squarely into corporate strategy

Female executive voices: McKinsey’s “Women in the Workplace 2024” reports women hold 29% of C-suite roles, up from 17% in 2015—a growing audience hungry for senior female strategists as role models and authors

Uncertainty economy: The IMF’s World Uncertainty Index hit record highs in 2020–2024; leaders and boards actively seek frameworks for operating at the edge of clarity rather than retreating to false precision

Board and governance market: Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) data shows over 5,000 public company board seats turn over annually in the U.S.—board members seeking strategic frameworks represent a significant and underserved readership

India diaspora and global south leadership: With over 4.4 million Indian Americans (U.S. Census 2022) representing one of the highest-earning demographic groups, and the rise of Indian-origin CEOs across Fortune 500 companies, Unnikrishnan’s background amplifies her reach into a large and book-buying community

Author Credentials

Roopa Unnikrishnan is Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer at IDEX Corporation (NYSE: IEX), a $3.5B+ industrial manufacturer—giving her real-time, practitioner credibility on enterprise strategy that most business book authors lack

Rhodes Scholar: Among the most competitive academic honors in the world, with fewer than 100 Americans selected each year, establishing her as an intellectual peer to the academic and editorial gatekeepers who influence major media coverage

Award-winning author: Her previous book, The Career Catapult, won the Independent Press Award for Careers and has been published in multiple languages, demonstrating market-proven ability to translate executive thinking into compelling books

Elite athlete: India’s first female rifle-shooting gold medalist at the Commonwealth Games—a compelling, differentiated backstory that resonates in sports media, women’s achievement stories, and international press

Social media reach: LinkedIn (10,667 followers), Twitter/X (9,985+ followers with high engagement), blog (19,000+ unique visits), executive newsletter (3,000+ subscribers at 40% open rate—more than double the industry average of 17–19%)

New York City–based: Positioned at the epicenter of media, finance, and publishing—enabling in-person press opportunities, proximity to Wall Street/corporate audiences, and access to NYC’s active speaker and salon circuit

Publicity

Print, Broadcast & Major Media

Major trade reviewers: Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and Booklist among others

National Newspapers & Magazines

National newspapers (op-ed and review): The New York Times (DealBook, Sunday Business, Sunday Review), The Wall Street Journal (C-Suite column, Review section), The Washington Post (op-ed, not review), Financial Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times

Business press: Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., Bloomberg Businessweek, Barron’s

General interest and culture: The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Time, Wired, Smithsonian Magazine, Lapham’s Quarterly (classical wisdom angle)

Strategy and management journals: Strategy+Business (PwC), McKinsey Quarterly, California Management Review—ideal for longform adapted excerpts

Broadcast & Streaming

NPR: Fresh Air, How I Built This (Guy Raz), On Point, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Marketplace

PBS: NewsHour, Amanpour and Company, Firing Line (classical references, strategy)

Business TV: CNBC (Squawk Box, Power Lunch, Mad Money), Bloomberg TV, Fox Business

Network morning shows: NBC Today Show, CBS Mornings, ABC's Good Morning America (women in leadership angle)

Cable news: CNN (leadership/economy segments), MS NOW (leadership/corporate culture)

International & Diaspora Media

Indian outlets: The Times of India, The Hindu, Business Standard, NDTV, Economic Times, Mint (Unnikrishnan’s origin story + India’s largest asset: global diaspora ambition)

International business press: Financial Times (London), The Economist, Nikkei Asia, South China Morning Post

Op-Ed Strategy: Bylined pieces in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, or Fortune on: “What the Oracle of Delphi Knew About Strategy That Your AI Doesn’t,” “Why the Best Leaders Ask Questions Instead of Answering Them,” “The Case for Embracing Ambiguity in the Boardroom”

Podcasts

Business Strategy & Leadership

How I Built This (NPR/Guy Raz), Masters of Scale (Reid Hoffman), The Tim Ferriss Show, Acquired, Invest Like the Best, The Knowledge Project (Shane Parrish), The Diary of a CEO (Steven Bartlett), Hidden Brain, WorkLife with Adam Grant

Innovation & Technology

a16z Podcast, Lex Fridman Podcast (AI + ancient wisdom paradox), Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway), Hard Fork (NYT), No Priors (AI strategy), The Ezra Klein Show

Women in Leadership

How to Be Awesome at Your Job, We Can Do Hard Things (Glennon Doyle), Dare to Lead (Brené Brown / Unlocking Us), Women at Work (HBR), The Amy Porterfield Show, Girlboss Radio

Philosophy & Classical Thought

The Partially Examined Life, History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, Philosophy Bites, Ancient Wisdom Project, Philosophize This!, In Our Time (BBC Radio 4)

Corporate Governance & Finance

Odd Lots (Bloomberg), The Indicator (NPR Planet Money), Behind the Markets (Wharton), Capital Allocators, The Meb Faber Show, Rational Reminder

Indian Diaspora & Global South

The Seen and the Unseen (Amit Varma), The Café Economics Podcast, The India Fix, Brown Girl Gang, Seizing the Moment (leadership stories from South Asia)

Sports & Peak Performance

Finding Mastery (Michael Gervais), The Rich Roll Podcast, Impact Theory (Tom Bilyeu), Sports Stories—rifle shooting backstory opens door to performance psychology angle

Social Media & Digital Marketing

Author Platform & Built-In Demand

Author social media metrics: Linkedin: 10,667 followers; Twitter: 9,985+ followers, high engagement; Blog: 19,000+ unique visits; Newsletter: 3,000+ executives, 40% open rate

Author posts on strategy, innovation, and leadership; pre-publication content series (“Oracle Fridays”—one Delphic question per week applied to a real business challenge) to build momentum and collect email leads