C.K. Prahalad Award
C.K. Prahalad Global Sustainability Leadership Award
The annual C.K. Prahalad Global Sustainability Leadership Award recognizes exceptional, globally significant private sector action that 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 competitive advantage today and a clear path to lasting profit. And through their words and actions, they are helping to accelerate business sustainability and innovation beyond their own organizations.
The Prahalad 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.
The winner of the 2012 Prahalad Award will be announced at the June 2012 Annual Meeting of the Corporate Eco Forum in New York City. A jury comprised of CEF Advisory Board members will select the winner following a nominations process open to the public.
Past Prahalad Award Winners
The 2011 Prahalad Award honored Coca-Cola and Muhtar Kent for their galvanizing international leadership on critical global environmental issues and comprehensive efforts to embed sustainability into core business strategy. Read more.
The 2010 Prahalad Award was presented to Walmart Brazil and CEO Héctor Núñez for their historic leadership in developing rigorous new standards across the supply chain to address deforestation and other pressing environmental and social challenges. Read more.
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.