Recently I read an article in The Economist* Schumpeter/Twilight of the Gurus. It begins by explaining in quite simple and pointed terms that the past two decades have been driven by two major economic changes- the rise of the developing world and the digital revolution.
I smiled in approval on going through the portion which makes a complimentary reference to ‘the ascent of a remarkable group of Indian management theorists, most notably C.K. Prahalad (who died in 2010). They focused on subjects such as the buying power of the developing country consumers, the virtues of frugal products and the difficulties of doing business in places with poor infrastructure and weak institutions.” And as if this was not enough to gladden my heart, the article goes on to say that ‘the list of business schools with Indian–born deans, includes those of Harvard, Cornell and Chicago universities.’
The article ends by raising an interesting point- there are still no Chinese management gurus to challenge the leadership of the ageing Indian establishment. It did leave me a trifle confused- China is doing better than India in the economic sphere but the Indian management gurus are better than their Chinese counterparts. ....
By the way, this one page article also provided me with a stomach full of smarty jargon, of the type that reminds one of the IMF-World Bank experts. Here are a few gems: 'The end of competitive advantage’, ‘hyper competition’, ‘the attackers advantage’, ‘disruptive innovation’ and ‘thought leadership’.
