Dr. Prahalad is not just an academic; he is one of the foremost business thinkers of our time. He has written four seminal books on strategy. His 1987 coauthored (with Yves Doz) book: The Multinational Mission, Free Press, set the framework for understanding global business. He wrote, with Gary Hamel: Competing for the Future, Harvard Business School Press, 1994 which was hailed as the best business book of the year. He coauthored (with Venkat Ramaswamy) The Future of Competition, Harvard Business School Press (2204). Business Week described it as a book "full of disruptive ideas". His 2004 book, "The Fortune At The Bottom Of The Pyramid" Wharton Business Publishing, was voted the top business book of 2004 by Amazon.com editors. As the book suggests, Dr. Prahalad points out that the corporate sector can help the poor - profitably. He has won McKinsey prize for the best article in Harvard Business Review three times. He received honorary doctorates in economics (University of London) and Engineering (Stevens Institute of Technology) in 2005. He also received the Global Indian Award from Times of India panel of Indian business Leaders in 2004.
Dr Prahalad recently set up the Center for Global Resource Leverage at the Indian Institute for Information Technology in Bangalore. He considers that the Indian market has characteristics that may make it the model for the world in marrying social and economic development.
He is active and prominent as a business consultant, and his clients include some of the world’s leading companies. He sits on the boards of NCR Corporation, Hindustan Lever Limited and the World Resources Institute.
Dr Prahalad’s father was a judge. One of nine children, he was born in 1941. At 19, he joined Union Carbide after a degree in Physics. Four years later, he came to IIM/A. He met his wife, Gayatri during this time; they married five years later, and have two children. Dr Prahalad then went to Harvard Business School for a DBA, returned to India and taught at IIM/A before joining Michigan’s Ross School of Business where he is currently a Distinguished University Professor.