Ruhi Kandhari

Ruhi leads The Ken’s learning offerings and also writes Inciting Incident, a weekly subscriber newsletter that decodes and explains the biggest narratives around us. She is an award-winning journalist with over 15 years of experience.

Best of inciting incident

Apple was built on storytelling, but it missed a foundational principle with its latest iPad ad

Apple remembered to use two basic rules of storytelling, but forgot the most important one

Read

Accepting Applications for Jul-Sep 2025

We have limited slots open for teams in ambitious organisations, who want to use the power of storytelling, to meet their goals. Our programs are practice-oriented, outcomes-driven, and customised for each team.

Enrol now

Curating business narratives is increasingly becoming an essential skill for leaders and this workshop was a definite step up for all of us! PGK and Ruhi - brilliant work!

Mitul Sanghavi

Director,Trade Marketing @ Cipla

Becoming an essential skill for leaders and this workshop was a definite step up for all of us! PGK and Ruhi - brilliant work!

Mitul Sanghavi

Director,Trade Marketing @ Cipla

Leaders and this workshop was a definite step up for all of us! PGK and Ruhi - brilliant work!

Mitul Sanghavi

Director,Trade Marketing @ Cipla

Specialisations & Interests

Articulating purpose, identity and Vision

Data Storytelling

Clear and concise communication

Earning Audiences trust using stories

Growth of Generative AI

Articulating purpose, identity and Vision

Data Storytelling

Clear and concise communication

Earning Audiences trust using stories

Growth of Generative AI

When I am not teaching or writing, I practice and perform movement at a dance studio in Delhi.

I also practice what I teach while developing the learning vertical at The Ken using narratives.

They say good teachers explain, and great ones inspire. I try to inspire the participants to trust in the process of creation.

Ruhi Kandhari

“I enjoyed the programme and I am consciously making an effort to convert this learning into a habit of storytelling. Kudos to team The Ken, particularly PGK and Ruhi.”

Awadhesh Jha

Executive DirectorExecutive Director, GLIDA (earlier Fortum)

“Thank you team The Ken for conducting the workshop on ‘narrative thinking’ for our leadership team. Curating business narratives is increasingly becoming an essential skill for leaders and this workshop was a definite step up for all of us ! Praveen Gopal Krishnan and Ruhi Kandhari—brilliant work!”

Shivam Puri

CEO, Cipla Health

As you rightly point out, storytelling and building narratives are indispensable in the current age and am glad The Ken decided to launch a separate newsletter for this.

Sriram Sundaram

Great Article, thoroughly enjoyed stirring of my emotions while reading about emotions.
My 2nd best Newsletter from Ken...

Jayshil Desai

Accepting Applications for Jul-Sep 2025

Enrol now

Best of inciting incident

Apple was built on storytelling, but it missed a foundational principle with its latest iPad ad

Apple remembered to use two basic rules of storytelling, but forgot the most important one

Read

Specialisations & Interests

Articulating identity, purpose and vision

Applying story structure to presentations and emails

Telling actionable data stories

Earning the trust of your audience

Using emotions to craft compelling narratives

Story listening

Articulating identity, purpose and vision

Applying story structure to presentations and emails

Telling actionable data stories

Earning the trust of your audience

Using emotions to craft compelling narratives

Story listening

When I am not teaching or writing, I practice and perform movement at a dance studio in Delhi.

I also practice what I teach while developing the learning vertical at The Ken using narratives.

They say good teachers explain, and great ones inspire. I try to inspire the participants to trust in the process of creation.

Learn Narrative Thinking from The Ken

I spend a lot of time curating the programs for each team in each company so that I can deliver the curriculum with care and create impact. This means that I have only a handful of slots open every quarter. Get in touch to secure a spot.

Enrol Now

Complex and informative can become simple

Hi, I am Ruhi and I love journalistic storytelling. These may appear like two different worlds. And that is the reason I have spent my entire career trying to harmonise the two: The complex layered realities of business, society and culture with simple storytelling that inspires the audience to take action. There is no direct path to metamorphosing technical jargon into flowy narratives, or data into aha moments. Over the last 15 years, I have developed a way to craft business stories that are true but also connect with the audience. I have found that it is essential to not overwhelm the audience with information dumps. The audience is looking for nuanced information but in a format that they can understand and remember.

Truth based stories are powerful and lasting

At The Ken, I found the place to express extremely detailed truth in a simple and trustworthy manner as I wrote on listed companies like Max Healthcare, the birth of the insurtech sector, data-driven culture stories on the market for mental health treatment and online dating in India. Three years at The Ken and 100 stories later, I decided to marry my training in business journalism with an exclusive certification in novel writing from the Faber Academy in London in 2020. I have been honing my craft, curriculum and my ability to teach since then.

Praveen and Ruhi at a workshop at Cipla

Creations and reinventions prosper with the right narratives

As I work on my novel and write a weekly newsletter Inciting Incident on the intersection of business and storytelling, I also curate curriculum and conduct workshops for ambitious teams who want to learn this skill of making the complex simple for all kinds of audiences - customers, teams, investors. You name it. Over the last few years, I have worked with teams of business leaders, data, sales and product professionals, and enjoyed every moment of stepping into their shoes while sharing my experience of creating compelling business stories. During this time, I have collected up enough air miles that I can redeem to book an international vacation.

Experience

M.Sc. Development Studies, London School of Economics

Trained at the Asian College of Journalism

Chevening Scholar, 2015

Winner, Diageo Women's Empowerment Journalism Award, 2015

Apart from curating the curriculum, and conducting workshops and 1:1s with participants to help them apply the concepts in their roles, I also write. Here are some stories that I am proud of:

KKR’s divide-and-rule vision for Max after Radiant merger

How does a two-hospital chain like Radiant take over a hospital chain major like Max? All it seems to take is some hasty (and not cost effective) expansion, a worthy successor, and KKR's clout. But the merger means two schools of management at play, and not everyone is amenable to change

Healthy, Wellthy & Cipla: a digital therapy reminder for Indian pharma

Indian pharma is waking up to using digital therapy to help patients with chronic diseases live a healthier life. Besides, it’s as good a time as any to get back in touch with patient data and monetise for behaviour

Exit in sight, Gates Foundation hopes India will foot the vaccine bill

After pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into building India’s preventable disease vaccine market, the $48 billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) wants to step back. But if the Modi government doesn’t pick up where BMGF left off, the house the Foundation painstakingly built could come crashing down

Love in the time of casual? India’s big dating app data points

With more and more dating apps fighting for a share of the market, they must now tread the fine line between hookups and marriage. A line that's only fine in India

Can digital insurers replicate ZhongAn’s success in India?

China’s online-only insurer has sold seven billion policies and raised $1.5 billion in an IPO, with a valuation of $13 billion. Its Indian counterparts are inspired, but they have a lot less going for them

PolicyBazaar.com wants to take insurance back to its roots

And in the process, get to 100 million customers

I also write Inciting Incident, a weekly subscriber newsletter that decodes the biggest narratives around us. Here are some editions:

AI can be aligned to human values. But AI creators have other priorities

Apple Stores and the Indian faithful

Apple Stores aren't just here to showcase Apple products. They're here to build trust

Lessons from Patanjali on how not to pick your battles

The Supreme Court’s reaction hints that making a villain out of modern medicine may not work out benignly anymore

Sulabh revolutionised toilets because it cared about something more

Why investors can’t really be friends with founders

Three recent falls from grace show what 'founder-friendly' really means

FTX, EA, and the elusive dream of an equal world

FTX’s founder and the philosophy he subscribed to rose together. Now, they’re falling together

Dabur’s brand-new story for a brand-new audience

The company is getting ready for a different future, and it’s willing to let go of some parts of its legacy and embrace others to get there.

Nike’s new campaign unveils the promised land

Much of Nike’s success as a brand has to do with its brand story. And as it turns 50, it’s adding something new to the mix.

Here is the story of why I had to fire you

There is no place for diffidence, opaqueness, or excuses when an employer is delivering tough news

Handwashing’s 0.1% chance against face masks

The 150-year-old narrative has been displaced

If you’d like to get in touch with me, feel free to email me at [email protected], I will get in touch with you as soon as I can.

In the meantime, please browse some of our blog posts and case studies about the Narrative Thinking program.

Journalistic Storytelling is a vital skill for the leaders of tomorrow. They just don’t know it yet

The Ken completed the training of 100 senior leaders from high-growth Indian companies last month. All of them had one learning objective in common: to earn deeper trust from all their audiences, from teammates to customers

The art of emotion in the age of AI

Business leaders—in India and across the globe—are rushing to employ artificial intelligence to unlock value, yet without the authentic touch of human emotion, even profound intelligence yields tepid results

Customers care about brands when brands care about their stories

Fortum Charge & Drive India, a subsidiary of Fortum, the Finnish clean energy major, enrolled in The Ken’s exclusive and customised business storytelling programme as part of their rebranding exercise.

It is about the business first. Stories follow

No two Narrative Workshops can ever be the same because no two teams, businesses, or problem statements are the same. Therefore, customising the curriculum and balancing theory with practice is a consistent practice at The Ken's Narrative Thinking Programme.

Narratives are a solution for companies. But what is the problem?

Over the last two years, The Ken worked with teams across 15 companies to solve their problems using our exclusive curriculum for business storytelling.

The missing link between data and growth is a narrative

Teams from three organisations—ITC, Prescience Decision Solutions and Sight and Life—enrolled in The Ken’s Narrative Workshops to learn data storytelling. They always believed in the power of data, but they were still surprised by what a data story can do.

How Swissnex in India intensified its communications strategy using storytelling

A venture that works with startups, corporates, and universities in India and Switzerland enrolled its leaders in The Ken’s Narrative Thinking Programme. Now, they have a greater vision, a more ambitious role, and a deeper connection with their audiences.

The Ken’s storytelling workshops aim to train 200 leaders in 2023

A year since we launched, 100 leaders from India’s top organisations share how The Ken’s narrative thinking programme helped them

LatentView Analytics: Data shines when married to an authentic story

The recently-listed data analytics company enrolled its leaders in a storytelling learning programme with The Ken. Now, they are empowering their teams with a skill everyone needs.

The best-kept secret of successful companies

We worked closely with leadership teams at three companies to unlock the power of narratives inside their organisations. This is what we learned.

Building and Differentiating with Narratives – A Hands-On Workshop

A Leadership Workshop from The Ken