MUMBAI: The best-selling book that management guru C K Prahalad authored was about the 'Bottom of the Pyramid', but he himself is in a much more exalted position.

As far as leading global management thinkers go, CKP, as he is popularly known, is in the top league-and so are three other leading India-born, US-based management experts.

Apart from Prahalad, Vijay Govindarajan, Ram Charan and Rakesh Khurana have made it to the 'Thinkers 50' rankings released in London on Thursday by Suntop Media in association with the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD).

The Thinkers 50 ranking is a prestigious biannual online survey, based on the votes of 1,200 businesspersons, consultants, academics, MBA students and visitors to the project's website.

The candidates are judged on parameters such as originality of ideas, their practical application, rigour of research, the impact of their ideas, global outlook and loyalty of followers.

In this year's ranking, Prahalad is up nine places from no. 12 to no. 3, after strategy guru Michael Porter and Microsoft founder Bill Gates (no. 20 last year).

"Once regarded as the business equivalent of a James Bond villain, Gates' elevation to the number 2 slot suggests that he has successfully reinvented himself through a judicious combination of vacating the Microsoft hot seat and philanthropic giving," noted Des Dearlove and Stuart Crainer, the management writers who have been compiling the rankings since 2001.


They added, "Also benefiting from a generosity of spirit is another strategy guru, Professor C K Prahalad of the University of Michigan who challenges conventional thinking about the world's poor, rising an impressive nine places to number 3."

While the previous ranking in 2003 had only two Indians-Sumantra Ghoshal (no. 11) and Prahalad (no. 12)-this year's ranking has four.

Besides Prahalad, the other three have made it to the list for the first time (Ghoshal died in 2004). These include CEO coach and business advisor Ram Charan (no. 24), Tuck Business School professor Vijay Govindarajan (no. 30) and Harvard Business School professor Rakesh Khurana (no. 33), who Dearlove and Crainer describe as a "rising star".

While acknowledging the presence of so many Indians in the list, the duo said, "(The rankings) would also have included London Business School's Sumantra Ghoshal, who tragically died in 2004." They go on to add, "As yet, no Chinese guru has emerged."


Peter F Drucker, the father of modern management, who died a few weeks ago, had topped the bi-annual rankings since 2001. Despite the fact that Porter's "progress is no flash in the pan", Drucker's influence hasn't waned at all.

"Had we published the results just two weeks ago, the answer would have been different. Peter Drucker would almost certainly have topped the ranking for the third time in a row," said Dearlove and Crainer. As for Porter, "in the new economy meltdown, Porter on strategy is suddenly fashionable again".

There are only four women on the list. INSEAD's Renee Mauborgne (co-author of the bestseller 'Blue Ocean Strategy') is the highest placed at No 15, a position she shares with her colleague and co-author W Chan Kim.

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