C.K.Prahalad. The name resonates with different people - Business, Entrepreneurs, Management thinkers, Co-Authors, Consultants, Management Students, Government workers - in many different ways. For CK, perspective in most of what he had done has essentially come out of discussing, debating, working, observing and challenging with everyone around him. His belief in the early 1990s that there was more to strategy than the existing body of knowledge caught the attention of all and catapulted him into a different league. The idea that smaller business entities in a newer market can successfully compete and win looked counterintuitive until CK began to push the idea more aggressively.

A thinker, who was also an aggressive die-hard activist, easily recognized in his early days of work that many of the then reigning strategy themes revolved around understanding existing structures and methods of running business, with methods and tools that helped trace the attributes of successful business with a measurement framework (those mostly measured the "knowns"). Those approaches, sorely missed the ability to think in terms of how to restructure and redesign an industry, building competence and visualizing a future based on newer basis of reality - poverty, internationalization etc. CK wanted to factor in all these things in adequate dose in his works.

In this approach, lay his genius - many of his body of work that were to follow later were based on this paradigm - be it innovation, sustainability etc. In his work that spanned the areas of competing for the future, strategic intents, core competencies, corporate future planning, strategic architecture, winning in emerging markets, innovation and co-creation, price-performance trade-offs, sustainability and inclusive growth - he has perhaps touched more aspects of the last few decades of business than any other business thinker that one can think of.

Prahalad, being an activist at heart actually participated in trying out and implementing those forward looking ideas time and again. His direct participation in the corporate boards of various businesses, industry forums, academic trysts, writings and consulting work stand testimony to all that he had achieved in his lifetime. His secret sauce appears to be on top of profound thinking to constantly look at the big picture, dive in an area at any point in time for deeper and perhaps seminal analysis - quintessentially collaborate on key themes with others, create an understanding and interest in the respective areas and allow the collaborators to focus on the space and himself moving on to the next frontier. This approach enabled him to cover a span of areas that others could just dream about - strategy, innovation & co-creation, sustainability etc.

It is unthinkable for a center-stage management thinker to be at the edge for such a long time and still be dishing out radical ideas. When he came out with "Fortune At The Bottom Of The Pyramid," he said that he was moved deeply by the poverty that existed around the world and that made him ask the question: what if we can focus the entrepreneurial energy, resilience and perseverance of poor people into productive work while recognizing that the poor want to participate in the good things in life.

Another of his recent theories was that large global business need not have headquarters but can operate with multiple hubs around the world. His understanding of global collaboration and its impact at macro level was far superior to any of his contemporaries. His firm belief - stated early in this decade - that innovation would become cheaper with auto, pharma, tech clusters getting more international and innovation value chain getting more and more globally distributed and thereby bringing down the cost of innovation is already becoming true in various industries.

He had more integrated view of business than most others of his genre. He had a firm belief that inclusive growth and sustainability were intertwined and believed that inclusive growth and sustainability forces us to recognize how to do more for more people with less. This is the bedrock of his themes on business competitiveness, co-creation and sustainability. He claimed that his work centered around four areas: globalization, connectivity, inclusive growth and sustainability. The reality is that nobody has looked at all four of these and tried to understand their linkages for better leverage. He rightfully felt that this intersection of the four would be creating the next big opportunities for management and the society at large.


I have seen him in action in the fields of information technology, innovation, TiE, Sustainability - all within a span of few years and the way he created seminal thinking and action in the respective fields was sheer magic. He galvanized the movers and shakers of these industries and many times was part of creating new landscape. He was very imaginative in his thinking and always had the ability to move the needle through his discussions.

In a meeting while discussing green technologies, he challenged the established industry in North America to learn and innovate from experiences such as Tata's Nano model of trying to have final assembly of semi-finished cars done at warehouses /dealer locations, or the solar companies in developing nations carrying huge infrastructure as mini-modular components in the narrow alleys before getting them assembled at the place of installation.

In all visualization exercises he believed that what industries/associations desire and plan for is what they would end up achieving. While his argument for Indian industry to look at India at 75 when it was 60 is well known in the public, I have seen in close quarters the way he drove visualization exercises for associations like TiE, in which he was intimately involved from inception. In my last meeting with him in San Francisco, he was discussing his perspective on how the independent board members could discharge their functions (Trust but verify...) more effectively in the backdrop of improving corporate governance in the world.

He has influenced a huge swath of people - in all walks of life - from corporate boardroom execs to academics. This influence, am sure won't wane with time. His death is creating a huge void that can't and won't be filled - this is not just a cliche. As I heard the news of his demise on Saturday morning, I want to repeat here what I Buzzed: "Shocked to hear the news of C.K.Prahalad passing away! He looked so fit and dynamic - met him last just a few months back. For his standing as the world's premier thinker for a long time, he always used to be so humble and simple - discussing at ease common things and the most complex and sophisticated ideas alike. Tough to get over that he is no more alive. May his soul rest in peace!"

S. Sadagopan, heads consulting and enterprise business solutions for Mahindra Satyam based in Santa Clara. He has led several consulting and technology transformation engagements covering multiple industries cutting across a wide variety of technologies around the world. His blog is focused on emerging technologies & trends. These are his personal views.