C.K. Prahalad Award

The C.K. Prahalad Global Sustainability Leadership Award was created by the Corporate Eco Forum (CEF) to recognize exceptional individuals and companies—within or outside the CEF membership—whose work exemplifies the fundamental connection between sustainability, innovation and long-term business success in a globalizing world. Recipients of the Prahalad Award embrace sustainability as today’s most potent driver of innovation. They understand that the only path to long-term growth and success is to embed sustainability into their core business strategy - creating a competitive advantage today and a clear path to lasting profit.

The award was established in 2010 in honor of Dr. C.K. Prahalad, a master of business strategy and a champion of the poor who towards the end of his career focused his enormous talent on integrating sustainability firmly into the private sector. The Prahalad Award is administered by the Corporate Eco Forum, where Dr. Prahalad served as an advisor until his untimely passing in April 2010.

Inaugural Prahalad Award Winners

We are pleased to recognize Walmart Brazil and CEO Héctor Núñez as the recipients of the first annual C.K. Prahalad Award for Global Sustainability Leadership. Walmart Brazil, under the visionary leadership of Mr. Núñez, has taken unprecedented steps to protect the Amazon.

In June of 2009, Walmart Brazil convened a Sustainability Summit to introduce new mandates across its supply chain to protect the Amazon. At the summit, Walmart announced historic plans to address some of the thorniest environmental and social problems in the world. Walmart Brazil will now ensure that its supply chain does not include any of the following: companies that rely on slave labor; soybeans sourced from illegally deforested areas; and beef produced on any newly-cleared Amazonian land. The new mandates also call for a 70 percent reduction in phosphates in detergent and a 50 percent reduction in plastic bags by 2013. Read more about Walmart's sustainability work in Brazil.

These bold actions led CEF to choose Walmart Brazil and Héctor Núñez as the inaugural Prahalad Award recipients.

About C.K. Prahalad

C.K. Prahalad was the Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan specializing in corporate strategy. After decades of interaction with Global 500 CEOs as one of the world’s most well-respected management strategists, C.K.’s passing brought an abrupt end to what would surely have been a successful mission to innovatively expand sustainability agendas in boardrooms and executive suites across the globe.

C.K. was also a founding member of the CEF Advisory Board and an active participant in the CEF Annual Meetings. With Ram Nidumolu and M.R. Rangaswami, C.K. authored a 2009 Harvard Business Review cover story, "Why Sustainability is Now the Key Driver of Innovation."

C.K.'s authored or co-authored many best-selling business books, including Multinational Mission: Balancing Local Demands and Global Vision (1987), Competing for the Future (1994), The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value with Customers (2004), and The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profit (2004).

A prominent world-class figure, C.K. was named number one in the Thinkers50 (the most influential thinkers in management alive today) poll conducted by Suntop media and the Times of London. He was consulted by the top management of many of the world's foremost companies. C.K. served on the Board of Directors of Pearson Plc, Teradata Corporation, Hindustan Unilever Limited, TVS Capital and the World Resources Institute.