Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad (8 August 1941 – 16 April 2010) was an Indian-American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. He was the Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor of Corporate Strategy at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Stephen M. Ross School of Business. He co-authored " Core Competence of the Corporation" with

Gary Hamel Gary P. Hamel (born 1954) is an American management consultant. He is a founder of Strategos, an international management consulting firm based in Chicago. Biography Hamel graduated from Andrews University in 1975, and from Ross School of Bus ...

; and "

The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid The concept of ''The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid'' originally appeared as an article by C. K. Prahalad and Stuart L. Hart in the business journal ''Strategy+Business''. The article was followed by a book with the same title that discusse ...

" with Stuart L. Hart, about business opportunity in serving the

Bottom of the Pyramid The bottom of the pyramid, bottom of the wealth pyramid or the bottom of the income pyramid is the largest, but poorest socio-economic group. In global terms, this is the 2.7 billion people who live on less than $2.50 a day. Management schol ...

. On 16 April 2010, Prahalad died at the age of 68 of a previously undiagnosed lung illness in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

Education and teaching

Prahalad was born in

Madhwa brahmin Madhva Brahmins (also often referred as Madhvas or Sadh-Vaishnavas), are Hindu Brahmin communities in India, who follow Sadh Vaishnavism and Dvaita philosophy propounded by Madhvacharya. They are found mostly in the Indian states of Karnataka, Ma ...

family at

Coimbatore Coimbatore, also spelt as Koyamputhur (), sometimes shortened as Kovai (), is one of the major metropolitan cities in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyyal River and surrounded by the Western Ghats. Coimbato ...

(

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

) in 1941. His father was a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

scholar and judge in

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

(now

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

). At 19, he had finished his BSc degree in physics from

Loyola College, Chennai Loyola College is a private Catholic higher education institution run by the Society of Jesus in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded in 1925 by the French Jesuit priest, Francis Bertram, along with other European Jesuits. It is an auto ...

, part of the

University of Madras The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigiou ...

, and joined

Union Carbide Union Carbide Corporation is an American chemical corporation wholly owned subsidiary (since February 6, 2001) by Dow Chemical Company. Union Carbide produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or more further conversions by customers befor ...

, where he worked for four years. Four years later he did postgraduate work in management at the

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM Ahmedabad) is the world's number 1 business school, located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. The school has been accorded the status of an Institute of National Importance by Ministry of Human Resource ...

. At

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

, Prahalad wrote a

doctoral thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

on multinational management in two and a half years, graduating with a DBA degree in 1975.Professor C.K. Prahalad
After graduating from Harvard, Prahalad returned to the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad to serve as professor before returning to US again in 1977. He returned to the United States in 1977, with an appointment to the

Ross School of Business The Stephen M. Ross School of Business, also known as Michigan Ross, is the business school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1924, the school is ranked among the best business schools i ...

Administration. He eventually became a tenured full professor, earning the university's highest distinction, Distinguished University Professor, in 2005.

Career

In early 1990 Prahalad advised

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

' Jan Timmer on the restructuring of this electronic corporation, then on the brink of collapse. A process which was named Operation Centurion was set up, and was successful after two or three years. Prahalad was the inspiration behind the vision of India@75. While commemorating the 60th year of India’s independence, on 23 September 2007, during the Incredible India@60 celebration at New York, he articulated the idea of holistic three dimensional development of India to acquire enough economic strength, technological vitality, and moral leadership by 2022 – the 75th year of India’s independence. The

Confederation of Indian Industry The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group headquartered in New Delhi, India, founded in 1895. CII engages business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global ...

adopted his vision on 8 May 2008. This initiative of CII has also found resonance with the Government, as in the ‘Strategy for New India@75’ document released by the

NITI Aayog The NITI Aayog (; abbreviation for National Institution for Transforming India) serves as the apex public policy think tank of the Government of India, and the nodal agency tasked with catalyzing economic development, and fostering cooperative ...

, Government of India in 2018. C. K. Prahalad is the co-author of a number of works in corporate strategy, including ''The

Core Competence A core competency is a concept in management theory introduced by C. K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel.Prahalad, C.K. and Hamel, G. (1990)The core competence of the corporation", Harvard Business Review (v. 68, no. 3) pp. 79–91. It can be define ...

of the Corporation'' (with

, Harvard Business Review, May–June 1990) which {{As of, 2010, lc=y was one of the most frequently reprinted articles published by the journal.{{cite news , title=The guru of the bottom of the pyramid , last=Schumpeter , date=24 April 2010 , newspaper=The Economist , url=http://www.economist.com/node/15949503?story_id=15949503 He authored or co-authored: ''Competing for the Future'' (with Gary Hamel, 1994), ''The Future of Competition'' (with Venkat Ramaswamy, 2004), and ''

: Eradicating Poverty through Profits'' (

Wharton School Publishing Wharton School Publishing was a publishing house, a division of The Wharton School and Pearson, the world's largest education publishing and technology company. The imprint brought together a variety of business educators and corporate executives ...

, 2004). His last book, co-authored by M. S. Krishnan and published in April 2008, is '' The New Age of Innovation''. He co-authored: "Innovation's Holy Grail" with R.A Mashelkar which was chosen as a

Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. ''HBR'' is published six times a year and is headquartered in Brighton, Massach ...

Top 10 articles on Innovation and focuses on how developing nations are leading the way in innovation that focuses more on affordability and sustainability as opposed to the common premium pricing model.{{cn, date=December 2020 Prahalad was co-founder and became chief executive officer of Praja Inc. ("Praja" from a Sanskrit word "Praja" which means "citizen" or "common people"). The company had goals of providing unrestricted access to information for people at the "bottom of the pyramid" and providing a test bed for various management ideas. It eventually laid off a third of its workforce, and was sold to

TIBCO TIBCO Software Inc. is an American business intelligence software company founded in 1997 in Palo Alto, California. It has headquarters in Palo Alto, California, and offices in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South A ...

. In 2004 Prahalad co-founded

management consultancy Management consulting is the practice of providing consultant, consulting services to organizations to improve their performance management, performance or in any way to assist in achieving Goal#Goal setting management in organizations, organizatio ...

The Next Practice, to support companies in implementing the strategies outlined in ''The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid'', which continued in operation {{As of, 2015, lc=y. At the time of his death he was on the board of TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs. Prahalad was a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission of the United Nations on Private Sector and Development.

Honors and awards

He was the first recipient of the

Lal Bahadur Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri (; 2 October 1904 – 11 January 1966) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 2nd Prime Minister of India from 1964 to 1966 and 6th Home Minister of India from 1961 to 1963. He promoted the White Re ...

Award for contributions to Management and Public Administration presented by the President of India in 1999. * In 1994, he was presented the

Maurice Holland Award ''Research-Technology Management'' (''RTM'') is a journal published by the Industrial Research Institute (IRI). It publishes Peer review, peer-reviewed, research-based articles and personal perspective pieces written by and for Research and develop ...

from the

Industrial Research Institute Innovation Research Interchange (IRI) is a division of the National Association of Manufacturers, a nonprofit association based in Washington, D. C., United States. IRI was founded as a private non-profit in 1938 and merged with the NAM in 2022. IR ...

for an article published in '' Research-Technology Management'' titled "The Role of Core Competencies in the Corporation." * In 2009, he was awarded

Pravasi Bharatiya Samman The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (Overseas Indian Honour/Award) is the highest Indian award for Non-resident Indian and Overseas Citizen of India or an organisation or institution established and run by Non-Resident Indians or Persons of Indian Orig ...

. * In 2009, he was named

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

'third in the hierarchy of civilian awards' by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

.{{cite web , url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf , title=Padma Awards , publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India , date=2015 , access-date=July 21, 2015 , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015193758/http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf , archive-date=15 October 2015 , df=dmy * In 2009, he was named the world's most influential business thinker on the Thinkers50.com list. * In 2009, he was awarded the Herbert Simon Award by the

Rajk László College for Advanced Studies Rajk College for Advanced Studies ( hu, Rajk Szakkollégium) is an educational institution offering advanced courses in the fields of economics, business and social sciences. The College is a self governing community of about 100 selected student ...

(

Corvinus University of Budapest Corvinus University of Budapest ( hu, Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem) is a university in Budapest, Hungary. The university currently has an enrolment of approximately 9,600 students, with a primary focus on business administration, economics, and so ...

). * In 2010, he was posthumously awarded the Viipuri International Prize in Strategic (Technology) Management and Business Economics by

Lappeenranta University of Technology LUT University ('' English:'' Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT) (''Finnish'': Lappeenrannan-Lahden Teknillinen Yliopisto LUT) is a Finnish public research university which was established in 1969. The university's Lappeenranta campu ...

. * In 2011, the Southern Regional Headquarters of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) was named as Prof C K Prahalad Center * In 2018, he was named the world's most influential business thinker on the Thinkers50.com list.{{cite news , title=2018 Hall of Fame Inductees , url=http://thinkers50.com/hall-of-fame/ , access-date=November 30, 2018 , publisher=thinkers50.com

References

{{Reflist

External links

{{Wikiquote
Video interview on The Magazine Post

Video interview on Thinkers 50The Fortune at the Bottom of the PyramidThe New Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid
{{Herbert Simon Award recipients {{PadmaBhushanAwardRecipients 2000–09 {{Authority control {{DEFAULTSORT:Prahalad, C K Indian business theorists 1941 births Harvard Business School alumni Ross School of Business faculty Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad alumni Loyola College, Chennai alumni Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education 2010 deaths Indian Tamil academics University of Madras alumni Indian emigrants to the United States American academics of Indian descent 20th-century Indian economists People from Coimbatore American people of Indian Tamil descent Scientists from Tamil Nadu Tamil scientists Business educators Recipients of Pravasi Bharatiya Samman American people of Indian descent

Education and teaching

Career

Honors and awards

See also

References

External links