End of a Tryst

Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad, who passed away on April 16, 2010, was
arguably the greatest management thinker after Peter Drucker. His call to the
businesses to seek value at the bottom of the pyramid, may have been referred to
as one of the greatest management ideas of all times, but in reality, it is more
than just that. It is one of the most powerful socio-economic thoughts of our
times that paved the way for development of many underprivileged around the
world, by converging profit making and social development, something which Marx
had tried by taking the exact opposite route, but failed miserably. While he was
awarded with Padma Bhushan in 2009, many feel that was too little, too late.

Prahalad, who described India as the laboratory for innovation had his
engagement with the Indian IT industry in various ways. Apart from advising
Wipro and Tata Group (the parent of TCS), Prahalad often engaged with and spoke
about the success of the Indian IT industry in global forums. In fact, his last
book, The New Age of Innovation: Driving Co-created Value through Global
Networks, co-authored with MS Krishnan, a professor of business information and
technology, is full with examples and learnings from the global IT services
industry, much of which is centered here in India.

In the Nasscom Leadership Forum 2009, when he was conferred the Global Indian
award, Prahalad spoke on Managing in Turbulent Times. He said the core drivers
for this new economy are going to be connectivity, digitization, convergence and
social networking. Yes, the guru who was sixty-eight when he died and
sixty-seven when he delivered this keynote, identified social networking as a
key driver.

He also outlined the world moving towards an on-demand model, in all
businesses, something on which todays buzzword, cloud computing stands. He
actually gave examples of a truck tire manufacturer charging the customer for
usage rather than charge a heavy one time amount.

While many academicians did not support the populist anti-outsourcing stance
of some US politicians, few were as clear and unambiguous as Prahalad in their
criticism. He said global outsourcing was not about exporting jobs but importing
competitiveness. He said unequivocally that protectionism would not survive. In
the Nasscom Forum in 2009, he asked Indian IT companies not to worry about the
US policies on outsourcing or protectionism as it cannot survive without it.

Prahalad who earned a bachelors degree in Physics from Chennais Loyola
College took up his first job at Union Carbide and then pursued a management
degree from IIMA and later moved to the US for higher education. His penchant
for management became evident in Harvard Business School, where he completed his
doctoral thesis in just two and a half years time.

Interestingly, Prahalad came back to India and taught at IIMA, but ultimately
he returned to the US and held the position of the Paul and Ruth McCracken
Distinguished University Professor of corporate strategy at the Stephen M Ross
School of Business in the University of Michigan.

One of the first reactions after Prahalads death came from the top executive
of the company, which like him, is American in legality but Indian in ethos.
Commented Lakshmi Narayanan, vice chairman, Cognizant, With the demise of CK
Prahalad, the corporate world has lost a management guru and a corporate
strategist of the highest order. While he will indeed be missed by all in the
corporate world, his lifelong commitment and work towards helping shape the
future of the global economy will inspire and guide leaders all over the world
for a long period of time to come. His fresh and ever-evolving business
insights, and the sheer depth and breadth of his knowledge helped
entrepreneurial ambitions soar against the force of constraints, biases and in
his own words, dominant logic.

Prahalad will be remembered for his ruthless objectivity and unusually sharp
ability to change popular perceptions. To me, one of the most striking
attributes of his personality was his ability to quickly see through the
strengths and weaknesses of an enterprise or an idea, come up with highly
practical remedies for management deficiencies, and above all, his ability to
sustain high levels of energy even in the face of some of the most daunting
complexities, said Narayanan.

Shrikanth G

shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in