CK Prahalad: The Inclusive Visionary

Image: AFP for Forbes India

n October 2007 a series of wildfires broke out across California, endangering the lives of its inhabitants. A state of emergency was declared and the authorities started evacuating people. But even as the fires raged dangerously close to his neighbourhood, it was business as usual for one San Diego resident. He quietly packed his bag and took a flight out to Houston and then to Atlanta. He had more pressing business to attend to than bother about his house burning down. The man was C.K. Prahalad. And he was going to speak at the TiE chapters (a global non-profit entrepreneurship organisation) in Atlanta and Houston, something he always did for free — even paying his own hotel and travel expenses. His close friend and TiE Global CEO Suren Dutia told Prahalad that he could have always addressed TiE later. Prahalad said, “Suren, I had made a commitment. I have to keep my word.” That was C.K. Prahalad for you. Commitment meant more than his own well-being.

Throughout his life there was an intriguing aura around Prahalad. He wasn’t a very flamboyant speaker. He never resorted to antics on stage. He spoke with a deadpan expression, and little voice modulation. He rarely smiled — and almost never when he posed for pictures. But when he spoke, the audience was mesmerised. Bill Fischer, professor at IMD (Switzerland) and a former professor at CEIBS Shanghai, recalls the time Prahalad addressed a corporate conference at CEIBS in 1999. “I vividly recall his statement, ‘Let’s assume for a moment that having a lot of poor people is an advantage, rather than a disadvantage’,” says Fischer. “For me and a lot of others present there, this was the one moment when all the lights just go on!” This was years before Prahalad coined the term bottom of the pyramid (BoP).

Vijay Govindarajan, professor at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, recalls being intimidated by Prahalad in 1974 when he had just stepped off the plane at Boston’s Logan Airport. Prahalad, who was pursuing his doctorate at Harvard at that time, had come to receive him. To kill time, Govindarajan casually asked him, “So what keeps you busy?” Once Prahalad finished telling Govindarajan about all the books and case studies he was working on and also the half-time job he was doing, the latter was a bundle of nerves — unsure if ordinary students like him were good enough for Harvard.

But Prahalad was the exception rather than the rule. He was destined for stardom, something that had become very obvious during his Harvard days. Prahalad’s doctoral thesis was on multinationals and how they do not need to choose between economies of scale (which lowers costs) and local responsiveness (which provided differentiation). Govindarajan recalls, “At that time, Mike Porter was the emerging star who argued that low-cost and differentiation are inconsistent strategies and they cannot be pursued simultaneously. C.K.’s thesis proved Porter wrong.”

After finishing his doctorate at Harvard, Prahalad went back to his alma mater IIM-Ahmedabad to teach. He was a popular professor — and often got higher ratings from students than some older, established colleagues. But India just didn’t offer the kind of research environment his restless mind yearned for. Rumour has it, Prahalad was also a victim of politics at IIM-A, orchestrated by jealous colleagues. Disappointed, in just about two years, he packed up his bags and left, something that some of his then IIM-A colleagues still feel rueful about.

It was during his doctorate at Harvard that Prahalad met his French classmate Yves Doz. The two got along like a house on fire. This was the beginning of a long partnership that would later create a seminal piece of work — a book titled ‘The Multinational Mission: Balancing Local Demands and Global Vision’. It catapulted Prahalad into the galaxy of emerging management thinkers. Prahalad also picked up a quirk from Doz that would stay with him for the rest of his life — an appreciation for fine wines.

In 1981 Prahalad, who was now teaching at Michigan Business School (now the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan), met Gary Hamel a doctoral student. Their collaboration led to ‘Competing for the Future’, another seminal piece of work which put the spotlight on the idea of core competence and strategic intent.

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