C.K. Prahalad MAP project in India
C.K. Prahalad Initiative

The late Professor C.K. Prahalad, who taught at Ross from 1977 until his death in 2010, extended the Ross School’s reach in India.

March 16: Application Deadline - C.K. Prahalad Fellowship

Prahalad created the idea of “next practices” – innovation that sparks competitive advantages and seeds the transformation of an industry or organization. He pushed to explore how to do more with less for a broader spectrum of people, which earned him recognition from world leaders such as President Bill Clinton and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In his memory, the C.K. Prahalad Initiative now anchors India Initiatives with the perspective that the base of the global socioeconomic pyramid can yield opportunities for businesses.  

In that spirit, the C.K. Prahalad Initiative carries on his work by focusing on research that generates innovations and creates new products and business models for consumers at the base of the global economic pyramid.

Prahalad’s legacy has opened doors for Ross students to work on exciting educational projects with some of the country’s largest and most influential companies. With business partners, students and faculty produce intellectual capital centered on the questions that shaped Prahalad's thinking about the intersection of business and social value creation. The initiative creates global conversation by disseminating that intellectual capital to researchers, educators, and practitioners worldwide.

The C.K. Prahalad Initiative seeks business partners from many different locations and in widely divergent industries to work with Ross School to identify organizations where exciting innovation is happening. Michigan Ross has a strategic partnership with Confederation of Indian Industry, India's largest business association. This allows Ross India Initiatives to co-create action-based learning projects with CII member companies that will balance social value and innovative aspirations.

Although the initial focus was on India, the C.K. Prahalad Initiative engages partners throughout the world -- organizations both large and small in the U.S. and abroad whose culture and strategies align with the initiative's mission.

C.K. Prahalad Research Award

Ross faculty and PhD students have the opportunity to receive funding for research on market-based business solutions that embolden people at the base of the global economic pyramid. For more information, email ross-globalinitiatives@umich.edu  

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ross-globalinitiatives@umich.edu
 (734) 936-3917