17 December 2009

Know The Personalities: C.K.Prahalad, Nandan Nilekani

C. K. Prahalad


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C. K. Prahalad
Born 1941[1]
Nationality Indian
Alma mater University of Madras
Harvard University
Occupation Professor
Religious beliefs Hindu
Website
www.ckprahalad.com/

Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad (pronounced as: Pra-huh-laadh) (b. 1941[1], Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India[2]) is an Indian entrepreneur, consultant, and management expert. Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor of Corporate Strategy at the Ross School of Business of the University of Michigan.

He is one of the recipients of Pravasi Bharatiya Sammaan awards in 2009[3], and was conferred the Padma Bhushan, an Indian civilian award, the same year. In 2009 he was named the world's most influential business thinker on The Thinkers 50 list, published by The Times [4].

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[edit] Personal life and education

Prahalad is one of nine children. His father was a well-known Sanskrit scholar and judge in Chennai. When he was 19, Prahalad was recruited by the manager of the local Union Carbide battery plant after completing his B.Sc degree at the University of Madras. He worked there for four years. Prahalad calls his Union Carbide experience a major inflection point in his life.

At Harvard Business School,Prahalad wrote a doctoral thesis on multinational management in just two and a half years, graduating with a D.B.A. degree in 1975.[5]

He then returned to India, where he taught at the IIM Ahmedabad. He returned to the United States, as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.

[edit] Career

[edit] Writings, interests, and business experience

C. K. Prahalad is the author of a number of well known works in corporate strategy including The Core Competence of the Corporation (Harvard Business Review, May-June, 1990). He has authored several international bestsellers, including: "Competing for the Future"(with Gary Hamel), 1994, "The Future of Competition," (with Venkat Ramaswamy), 2004 and "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits," Wharton School Publishing, 2004. His new book with co-author M. S. Krishnan is called The New Age of Innovation.

He was co-founder and became CEO of Praja Inc ("Praja" from a Sanskrit word "Praja" which means "citizen" or "common people"). The goals of the company ranged from allowing common people to access information without restriction (this theme is related to the "bottom of pyramid" or BOP philosophy) to providing a testbed for various management ideas. The company eventually laid off 1/3rd of its workforce and was sold to TIBCO. He is still on the board of TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs.

Prahalad has been among top ten management thinkers in every major survey for over ten years. Business Week said of him: "a brilliant teacher at the University of Michigan, he may well be the most influential thinker on business strategy today." He is a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission of the United Nations on Private Sector and Development. He is the first recipient of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Award for contributions to Management and Public Administration presented by the President of India in 2000.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Notable Alumni: Dr. C K Prahalad. IIMA USA Chapter.
  2. ^ Biography: CK PRAHALAD. Thinkers50.
  3. ^ http://specials.rediff.com/news/2009/jan/09slide1-pravasi-bharatiya-divas-awards-ceremony.htm
  4. ^ http://news.therecord.com/Business/article/613813
  5. ^ Professor C.K. Prahalad
More @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prahalad



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Nandan Nilekani

Nandan Nilekani

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Nandan M Nilekani
Born 2 June 1955 (1955-06-02) (age 54)
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Occupation Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
Salary $203,545 USD (net compensation in 2007)[1]
Net worth USD $1.3 Billion

Nandan Nilekani (Konkani/Kannada: ನಂದನ ನಿಲೇಕಣಿ) (born June 2, 1955) is an Indian entrepreneur and businessman. He currently serves as the Chairman of the new Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), after a successful career at Infosys Technologies Ltd. He was the inspiration behind the book, The World is Flat.[2]

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[edit] Early life

Nandan Nilekani was born in Bangalore, Karnataka, as the younger son of Durga and Mohan Rao Nilekani. His father worked as a General Manager of Mysore and Minerva Mills. His father, subscribed to the Fabian Socialist ideals, had an influence on Nandan during his early years. He has a older brother, Vijay, who works in the Nuclear Energy Institute.[3]

He studied at Bishop Cotton Boys School Bangalore, and then at St. Joseph's High School Dharwad, and later in IIT, Bombay where he graduated with a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering in 1978. [4] His early years were marked by his father’s job transfers and re-locations. He spent the first twelve years at Bangalore, where he studied at the Bishop Cotton Boys School. He then moved in with his uncle’s family in Dharwad, after his father had been transferred.

[edit] Career

Nandan Nilekani, after graduating from IIT Bombay in 1978, he joined Mumbai-based Patni Computer Systems where he was interviewed by N.R. Narayana Murthy. Three years later, in 1981, Murthy walked out of Patni following a dis-agreement with one of the Patni brothers. His entire division walked out with him. The defectors decided to start their own company, Infosys.

Nilekani became the Chief Executive Officer of Infosys in March 2002, taking over from Murthy. Nilekani served as CEO and MD of the company from March 2002 to April 2007, when he relinquished his position to his colleague Kris Gopalakrishnan, becoming Co-Chairman. He left Infosys on 9 July 2009 to serve as the chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India, in the rank of a cabinet minister under invitation from the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh.

He co-founded India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) as well as the Bangalore Chapter of The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE).

He appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on March 18, 2009[5] to promote his book "Imagining India." He has been a speaker at the prestigious TED conference where he talked about his ideas for India's future.

He has an estimated net worth of the Indian rupee equivalent of US$1.3 billion.[6] In 2009, Time magazine placed Nilekani in the Time 100 list of 'World's Most Influential People' [7]


More @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nandan_Nilekani




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