CK Prahalad topped the Thinkers 50 in 2007 for the first time. Now, reaffirmed as the world’s leading business thinker, he shared his views on what changed in his latest edition of Bottom of the Pyramid
Presumably being the most influential management thinker in the world that puts a bit of pressure on you?
Not really. I think of it as a big obligation rather than as a privilege. I think it’s a nice spot to be in, but it’s also a big responsibility because people might take you seriously.
Think of the world as a combination of micro consumers. That means you have to make things affordable, accessible and available. As micro consumers we also want to exercise choice, that’s co-creation, and that applies across the board. Even if you can afford only what rich people can afford, you still want to co-create. Personal choice and affordability are two sides of being the consumer. The idea of democratisation is building systems where micro consumers, you as a person can be a micro consumer, micro producer, micro innovator and micro investor.
Connectivity allows ordinary people to connect, disintermediating the tyranny of large institutions, and that is an important innovation taking place right in front of our eyes. Look at what happened in the 2008 presidential campaign. It was all small contributions, not just the big blockbuster dinners, and that made Obama successful.
Democratisation of commerce forces us to think about three issues in a very important way. First, there is the centrality of the individual rather than the institution. Then the interdependence of institutions. Nobody can do this alone any longer. It doesn’t matter how big the company is. That’s why even companies like Procter and Gamble have to think about connect and develop. Everybody now understands that. That means you have to compete as an ecosystem. And the third issue, which is more important, is iterative, interactive innovation which involves a large number of people.
A lot of things in life can be small steps taken very rapidly by a large number of people creating big change. You can see what has happened with Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. These are fundamental changes taking place rapidly, seamlessly and painlessly. Nobody is forcing you to be part of it, but you see the benefits of being part of it. And so I think we are on the verge of this new intellectual, organisational and social challenge of how do we allow everybody to participate in the benefits? That does not mean everybody gets to be equally successful, but everybody has the right to participate and the opportunities to participate. At least that is my hope of where we are going.