CK Prahalad: India has lost a well wisher; world a great thinker

April 17 was a very sad day for India.

The man who envisioned India@75 would not live to see the day. CK Prahalad, one of India’s most prolific thinkers is no more.
In my professional life, I have met many brilliant people, but CKP always amazed you with his ability to analyse and theorise seemingly ordinary situations. He peeled away accepted beliefs and questioned basic assumptions. Spending time with him was like taking a holy dip in the Ganges of intellectual thought.

As a management guru, his contribution in the areas of strategy has been path breaking. He followed a unique process in dissecting a problem and gaining new insights. His contribution over the last few years has given rise to many new concepts in business; amongst them the idea of Core Competency, Strategic Intent, looking to Next Practices (as opposed to Best Practice), Co Creation and Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. He apparently progressed in a logical fashion and has moved from creating an efficient corporation to identifying the next opportunity.

Like many others, we were beneficiaries of his remarkable insights. To him, the building of talent on a huge scale was the core competency of Indian IT. We had several discussions with him as we built on the “recruit - scale - deploy” model. Innovation in business processes was required to drive this; digitisation became its hallmark. We went on to nurture talent not just on various technologies but across domains, which then were verticalised. He believed this would be a clear differentiator, and he was right. A TCS case study jointly with University of Michigan was undertaken and saw its way into his book as well. The ‘recruit to deploy model’ used in IT is of relevance to other high growth sectors as well, it made sense for mass skill development in the country, and beyond borders, in other countries with similar challenges. This is an example of CKP’s ideas transcending boundaries and regions.

His gift of unravelling “complexity” to create “structure” was seen in ample measure in his book “The New Age of Innovation”. The book delights by creating an architectural framework for businesses transformation through innovation, with the seamless integration of strategy, business processes, technology and people factors. In his utterly humane way, he shared a manuscript of the book and asked me to pen a foreword for it; we had several exchange of ideas on the same.

The IT industry perhaps best represents the market dynamism, competitiveness and changing customer expectations of our times. The need to create personalised co-created experiences combined with the global access to resources and talent, was symbolically represented by N=1, R=G. TCS’ Global Networked Delivery Model is something I can very clearly relate to this kind of thinking.

For me however, what was most appealing was the belief that technology was a crucial component and enabler of Innovation.
His ideas straddled two worlds; they were both globally relevant and yet very India-specific. He was perhaps one of India’s most ardent believers. He clearly envisioned a glorious future for India, if we could manage the complex challenges along the way.

Never one to leave you with just the problem, he proposed solutions, some of which called for radical new approaches.

His essay - India@75 in which he proposed a six-pronged strategy to make India an economic powerhouse by its 75th Independence Day in 2022, brought squarely back home the realisation of the scale of things in this country. For our demographic advantage to be realised, there is a need to build 500 million vocationally skilled people over the next decade or so. He asked me for my thoughts and this gave me the opportunity to delve deeper into the issue of skill development in this country. I put together a proposal and we were in fact close to finalising a manuscript on the same. We shared a joint passion on the topic and in the belief that technology was the means to bring reach and scale to this complex issue; I will sorely miss our discussions.  

As a fellow Board member at Hindustan Lever, I saw CKP from close quarters. I have witnessed his thoughts on brand building, reaching out to the masses and bringing in new technologies being converted into direct market benefits for the company. He was always challenging past assumptions and insisted that the future could be created.

He believed that India was at an inflection point and that we had the opportunity to transform the country. The expanding telecom sector, digital and mobile technologies could become the game changers to make a connect with the masses. And this preoccupation with the masses saw him bring out the winner of a book —- The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. His path breaking ideas on sustainable business opportunities at the bottom of the pyramid is, in some way, the surrogate voice of millions of Indians who aspire for a better life. For me personally, the compelling case that drew business attention to the underserved sections of society will be his lasting legacy.

The last time I met him was when he was in Mumbai to give the Seventh Nani A Palkhivala Memorial Lecture in January this year. The audience listened with rapt attention. Never had I heard a more eloquent and scholarly discourse on the heritage of this country, the violation in practice, of the spirit of the Indian Constitution and the shared vision we could create. He called it “Sampurna Swaraj to Sampurna Azadi”. In his uncanny style of cutting through to the basics, he urged us to reimagine politics and governance; he spoke about having the courage to adopt “next practices” in governance. CKP may have spent a lot of time in the US but to me that day, I saw, his heart was in India. I believe that this speech of CKP’s is a must read for every section of Indian society.

CKP may be no more, but his ideas will live on for a long, long time. Indeed, I believe we have a collective responsibility to adopt and implement his profound thoughts and continue to be inspired by his vision of India. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to have known him and be illuminated by his vision. India has lost a well wisher; the world has lost a great thinker.

The writer is vice-chairman, Tata Consultancy Services.