Late Dr. C. K. Prahalad’s Business Wisdom

Tanmay Vora
Updated on

Gift of thoughts is the best gift we can receive. After my talk at Ahmedabad Management Association recently, I was gifted with a book titled “Purely Prahalad – Business Wisdom from Late Dr. C. K. Prahalad’s thoughts”. This book is compiled and edited by AMA’s team.

It is a brilliant collection of useful gems. Here are 5 thoughts from the global thinker that I learned the most from:

– – – – –

Continuous Change

I am not interested in “charismatic leader” approach to innovation. Companies need continuous changes – not just episodic breakthroughs.

Don’t Wait Too Long

Finding the motivation to affect change is very difficult when the existing business model seem to be working well. But the question to ask is, “Will their zone of comfort force them to wait too long before they make a transition?”

Next v/s Best

Best practices lead to agreement on mediocrity. I do not have much interest in best practices. Because all of us benchmark each other, we gravitate towards mediocrity in a hurry. What we really need is to ask what is the next practice, so that we can become the benchmark companies, benchmark institutions around the world.

Creating an ‘Unlearning’ Organization

Creating a ‘learning organization’ is only half the solution. Just as important is creating an ‘unlearning organization’. To create the future, a company must unlearn at least some of its past. We’re all familiar with ‘learning curve’, but what about the ‘forgetting curve’ – the rate at which a company can unlearn those habits that hinder future success?

Helping Others

If you are honest about helping others rather than showing how smart you are, things are very easy.

2 Comments

Jay Chhaya July 19, 2011

Hello Tanmay,

You have indeed received a gem as a reward.
All points (abstracts of the book) are so well thought of and mentioned.
Some of them however has his (Dr. Prahalad’s) own perception – like, Next v/s Best.

First two, I found very interesting and motivational : Continous Changes and Don’t Wait Too Long.
Such good books are always great asset to possess.

Best Regards,

Jay Chhaya

Tanmay Author July 29, 2011

Thanks Jay!