Bidhan (Bobby) Parmar believes ‘doubt’ might be the most underrated leadership skill of our time. As Associate Dean for Faculty Development and the Shannon G. Smith Bicentennial Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, Parmar has built a career out of challenging how leaders think when the path forward is anything but clear.
Named one of the world’s top 40 business school professors under 40, Bidhan Parmar teaches ethics, collaboration, and critical thinking to the next generation of leaders while working closely with executives across industries to help them navigate the messy realities of organisational life. His illuminating research reshapes the way leaders approach decision-making, collaboration, and stakeholder engagement.
Parmar’s work blends neuroscience, psychology, and moral philosophy to show why conventional approaches to “solving” problems often fail in the face of ambiguity. His new book, Radical Doubt, reframes doubt not as a weakness but as a decision-making superpower. One that helps leaders generate better scenarios, design more flexible plans, and ultimately, craft better answers rather than chase elusive “right” ones.
At the University of Virginia, Bidhan Parmar co-directs the Darden Experiential Leadership Development Lab, where students practice leading under pressure in high-stakes, emotionally charged scenarios. He also produced the award-winning documentary Fishing with Dynamite, which explores the role of business in society through the voices of Robert Reich, Jim Collins, Bethany McLean, and other influential thinkers.
His scholarship has appeared in journals from Organization Science to Psychological Science, and his thought leadership has reached Fortune 500 boardrooms, government agencies, and nonprofit organisations. A fellow of the Olsson Center for Applied Ethics and former fellow of Harvard’s Safra Center for Ethics, Bidhan Parmar is a recognised authority on ethics, stakeholder theory, and human-centered leadership.
