CK Prahlad - My Guru

We have lost one of most revered management Guru CK Prahlad. I was strong believer of his ideas and management philosophy. He was revolutionary thinker and has brought a new paradigm to the way businesses are done. I would like to share in brief some of his great works.

a. The core competence of corporation - 1990 : In this work he had strongly advocated the concept of core competence. He stressed that organisations and individual should identify and access their core competence precisely. Then weave a fine and sustainable business and growth strategy around this.

b. Competing for the Future - 1994 : This is around the disposal of old and contemporary thought and ideas. Organisations should promote out of box thinking and pursue the transformational strategy. Give importance to strategy rather execution. It was hit.

c. Future of Competition - 2004 : Here he promoted the idea of concurrent development and growth. Customer is part of business and he should involve in the business and growth strategy as stake holder. If he is part of the process the chances of business successes are very high at very low investment.

d. The fortune at the bottom of Pyramid - 2006 : A breakthrough book involving the third world. He propagated that the larger mass is at the bottom of pyramid. They also have great aspiration and a huge demand group waiting to explode. A right strategy and business model around this will bring great fortune to the organisations.

e. The new age of innovation : 2009 : Innovation is the key is what he promoted for the new age business organisations. He has discussed the various strategies on how to achieve the capabilities which ultimately creates a successful innovation led organisations.

Lastly I have read and heard him talking about sustainability. He believed that this will be the challenge of tomorrow. Once you have grown big, how will you sustain the rate of growth. This will drive the pressure from inside for adopting out of box, disruptive innovations. It will drive the organisations to relearn and redo. and that is how another creative cycle will start.

He never believed on the contemporary, old, conservative systems. He believed that enough headroom will get created once you start adopting the BIG and out of box, innovation driven thinking. Once this bigness is set as goal then analyse what is required to match and the run to get it. This will always result in better result than the plan, execute, check cycle of thought.

My regards and homage to the great soul and guru....

Regards,

Sanjay