In Thinkers 50 Innovation: Breakthrough Thinking to Take Your Business to the Next Level, Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove examine the key insights of several of the world’s most influential thought leaders with regard to perhaps the most challenging business imperatives: innovation.

They pose this question to C.K. Prahalad: “You grew up in India as one of nine children. What did those early experiences teach you?”

“Growing up in India is an extraordinary preparation for management. You grow up in large families, so you always have to make compromises; you have to learn to accommodate. And India is a very diverse culture in terms of languages, religions, and income levels, so you start coping with diversity at a very personal level as a child.

“The second point is that I was lucky because my parents were very academically oriented. My father was a judge and a great scholar. He told us very early in life, ‘There is only one thing that when you give more, you get more – and that’s knowledge.’ That has stuck with me.

“Then [years later] in the Union Carbide plant, I had to work with communist unions. I had to set rates – I was a young industrial engineer –and negotiating rates with unions taught me a lot. They were very smart people, they were very thoughtful; and if you were fair and honest, you could deal with them in an interesting way. So it taught me not to think of these groups as adversaries, but to collaborate, be honest, and be fair.”

To learn more about Prahalad and his work, please click here.

Here is a direct link to the volumes co-authored by Crainer and/or Dearlove.