CK Prahalad – The Man
 |
|
|
|
Bala V. Balachandran
|
Bala V. Balachandran (Professor Emeritus of Accounting, Information and Management, Kellogg School of Management, and founder, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai)
C. K. has been a very close friend for four decades. We were full of mutual admiration for each other. As a friend, he was very affectionate and was completely dedicated. He would go out of the way to ensure that you were comfortable and happy. I still remember his surprise visit to my son Diwakar’s wedding in Houston — we had initially thought he wouldn’t be able to make it, but he did, with his wife Gayatri and son Murali and spent two whole days with us. As late as February 2010, when we had both returned from our January visit to India, I was enquiring about his health. On this occasion, he told me, “Bala, I am sorry I could not visit Great Lakes this January — I meant to, but I couldn’t. Please accept my apologies. I will definitely make it next year.” I could not believe this man — even at that juncture he was more worried about apologising to me. Sadly, next year will never come.
When you look at C. K.’s work, it always had a high degree of innovation. His forte was that he could write about anything — the customer, the CEO, strategy, core competencies, marketing — and he would always be spot-on. He had tremendous impact on the leadership/top management. He chose to research the strategy levels and suggest implementable, sustainable takeaways that didn’t require an analytical mind to comprehend. His lucid, clear and logical presentation ensured that he was an instant hit. To be able to write management that non-managers can understand is not easy and in that, he reigned supreme.
Amongst his many contributions, he will be singled out for his ‘Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid’. Why? It projects a fundamental approach to business, entrepreneurship, society and is a ready-reckoner to both developing and developed countries. Who would have thought that you could fight poverty, profitably? Both words are the anti-thesis other. That he was able to successfully and logically understand the connect and present it in such an intriguing manner shows the top-class of his brain power. In fact, I even remember discussing with him that I preferred the word ‘base’ to bottom and how we could use his outlined models to completely convert the pyramid into a cylinder where the largest and poorest section is no longer the largest or poorest.
C. K.P has an interesting approach to problem solving. This is something I have admired in him and something I have learnt to put to use myself. He is a very keen observer and rarely misses a thing. Now, all these observations are duly classified stored away in his mind to be used when their need arises. Once the crisis presents itself, C. K.P draws from these specific and appropriate observations, with the fullest knowledge of what they represent and uses them to locate outstanding solutions. I have since learnt that this is a cultivated trait but to C. K.P, it came naturally.
Single Page View
