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Who is he?
Indian-born Coimbatore Krishnao (CK) Prahalad is the Harvey C. Fruehauf Professor of Business Administration at the University of Michigan’s Business School. He ranked third in the Thinkers’ 50 in 2005.

What’s he famous for?
With Gary Hamel, a strategy guru (ranked 14), he wrote the bestselling book Competing for the Future, which introduced the idea of core competencies. Instead of identifying what business they are in, it argues, companies should identify their distinctive competencies — allowing them to focus on the activities they excel at which provide a competitive advantage.

How has his thinking evolved?
In 2004 Prahalad published two new books. In The Future of Competition, written with Venkat Ramaswamy, another professor at Michigan, he argues that globalisation and the internet have changed the rules of the competitive game and the role of the players. In particular, the access to greater choice means that customers are becoming more powerful. The concept of value has also changed. It is not inherent in products or services. Value has to be co-created with consumers, who build value by experiencing it — anything from making their own pizzas to managing a music archive with an iPod.

What else?
In The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid he identifies the world’s poor as a potential untapped market for companies, worth up to £7.4 trillion annually. This market, he says, could be co-created by multinationals, NGOs and the poor themselves.

A regular Bob Geldof?
Actually, Prahalad’s interest has nothing to do with philanthropy. He says that too often poor people are patronised by aid agencies. He wants them to have real power in the marketplace.


DES DEARLOVE & STUART CRAINER

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