LOYOLA INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

LOYOLA INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
ISSUE NO: 1
MARCH 2012
Centre for Emerging India
Foreword
Greetings from LIBA,
Prof CK Prahalad Centre for Emerging India pays tribute to Loyola's illustrious
alumnus and world renowned management guru Prof C K Prahalad by ensuring his
legacy lives on forever within the campus by taking forward his ideas. The family of
Prof CK Prahalad has also expressed active interest and a willingness to be involved
in the future activities of the Centre. The Centre will be working together with TiE in
carrying forward its proposed mission.
Contents
In this Inaugural Issue:
Inauguration
Celebrating Dr. C. K. Prahalad
Activities of the Centre
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Incubation Activities
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Capacity Building
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Case writing
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Research
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Networking
The advent of globalization opened many a door towards progress and prosperity for
India. But this prosperity has not percolated to the lower levels of society and has in
fact widened the chasm between the rich and the poor. These circumstances call for
inclusive growth where the poor is also brought into the main stream of our society.
This is exactly what Prof C K Prahalad had envisioned when he spoke about the 'The
Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profit.' This goes
hand in hand with LIBA's values - upliftment and inclusive growth of the less
privileged. Taking the cue from Prof CK Prahalad, this Centre will focus on research
, training, promotion of entrepreneurship to build an inclusive society
The Centre is directed by Fr N Casimir Raj SJ and research activities are coordinated
by Dr Indira assisted by Deepa and Rajalakshmi.
The Centre in collaboration with other institutions aims to mobilise socioeconomic
change by engaging the poor in the market place profitability. I am happy to mention
that it has already entered into an Memorandum of Understanding with Santa Clara
University and Georgetown University to take forward its objectives in social
entrepreneurship.
I am certain this venture by LIBA will emerge an internationally renowned research
base for other institutions, corporations and individuals who are working to bring
about a change in the lives of the people in the Base of the Pyramid.
Fr. P. Christie
Director, LIBA
C K Prahalad
Centre for Emerging India
Inauguration of C K Prahalad Centre for Emerging India-August 06, 2011.
pyramid and promote social venture capital. We are indeed proud
to be acknowledging the efforts of one or our most eminent alumni
of Loyola College, the late C.K Prahalad and I am happy we will be
continuing with his efforts to recognize the fortune at the bottom of
the pyramid.”
Prof. C.K. Prahalad Centre for Emerging India will focus on
research in the areas of strategy, innovation and
entrepreneurship appropriate to the base of the pyramid and
will primarily work towards addressing the current gap
between idea generation and scaling up into viable business
opportunities.
The Centre was formally inaugurated on August 06 2011 by
M.K Narayanan, West Bengal Governor and K.V Kamath,
Chairman, Infosys Limited at a function organized by LIBA.
Mrs. Gayathri Prahalad, wife of late C.K Prahalad and other
prominent business leaders who attended and spoke at the
event were Mr. Venkatrama Raja, MD & CEO, Ramco
Systems Limited; Fr. P. Christie, Director, LIBA; Fr. Casimir
Raj, Director, C.K. Prahalad Centre for Emerging India; Prof.
Bala Balachandran, Professor Accounting Information &
Management, Kellogg School of Management, North
Western University, Dr M. S. Krishnan, Professor & Chair of
Business Information Technology, Michigan Ross School of
Business Mr. Gopal Srinivasan, CMD, TVS Capital Funds
Limited; Prof. Jay Amaran, Vice President, Global
Determinants, Inc. USA; Dr. Sridhar Mitta, MD, Next Wealth
Entrepreneurs Pvt. Ltd; Mr. R. Gopalan, Secretary, Economic
Affairs, GOI; Fr Sebasti L. Raj, S.J, Governing Body
Chairman, LIBA , Mr D. Shivakumar, MD & VP Sales, Nokia
India and Mr. Bhadrashyam.H. Kothari, Chairman H.C.
Kothari Group of Companies, President, Loyola Alumni
Association.
Speaking at the inaugural event Fr. Christie, Director, LIBA
said, “The C.K Prahalad Centre is among the institute's efforts
to play a role beyond academic education and to play a larger
role in creating the global knowledge base and helping
develop the long term strategy and platform for growth in
certain important areas such as the BOP market. Besides
creating a wealth of knowledge on ideas, practices and
experiences for sustainable development through research
papers, articles, conferences and books, the Centre will also
incubate entrepreneurial ideas focused on the base of the
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Fr.Casimir Raj, Director of the Centre and Founder, Director of
LIBA added, “While over 60% of the global BOP market is said to
be based out of India and China and there is a lot of progress that
both large Indian MNCs as well as entrepreneurs have made in
developing innovative products and services to this market,
scaling it up into a viable and sustainable business seems to remain
a huge challenge. Additionally, while India has made its mark in
the global map with respect to BOP innovation in the last decade,
there is no one single concerted effort to conduct research and
develop a long term growth strategy for businesses in this space. It
is this gap and opportunity that we saw while conceptualizing and
developing the focus areas for this Centre. There are huge
opportunities for social ventures in the area of food processing,
education and self-grooming besides the opportunity to increase
the number of women entrepreneurs and the Centre will encourage
and enable to tap this potential.”
Excerpts from Mrs. Gayathri
Prahalad 's speech
Rev. Father Principal, Faculty of Loyola College, distinguished
guests. My name is Gayatri Prahalad and I am the wife of Dr.
Prahalad, who most of you know as CK. It is my honor and
privilege to address this august gathering of an institution that was
very dear to his heart.
Through the 40 years of our marriage, I remember many occasions
when he has fondly recalled his interactions with the dedicated
faculty that helped to influence and mould his thinking. During our
visits to India, we made frequent trips to Chennai, and he made it a
point to bring the children and me to Loyola College and show us
his Physics lab. A memory that is etched in all of our minds is
meeting Father Lawrence Sundaram who was the Principal when
my husband was there. All of us were impressed with his amazing
memory. He not only remembered my husband, but also his
brother, his parents and his address on Giri Road. Father Sundaram
was the one who wrote a recommendation for my husband's first
job, an internship at Union Carbide, which launched his career in
management.
A lot has been written about my husband as an outstanding teacher,
a scholar, a thought leader and a fierce nationalist. But underlying
all of these accomplishments was a wonderful human being who
believed in sharing his dreams, his academic work, and most of all,
his vision for the future. I believe that what made my husband
special goes beyond any award or achievement. I feel that his
genuine desire to help others, his ability to connect with people
NEWSLETTER MARCH 2012
I believe people listened to him because he did not preach
without setting an example himself. He understood that
change required more than good ideas; it required courage.
Despite his own success, my husband was always touched
deeply by the plight of the poor, and never stopped thinking of
ways to change their lives. He did not believe that charity was
the only answer. He knew that like everyone else the poor
wanted to have choices and be treated with dignity. Most
people who are researchers are inclined to ask “what is the next
big idea? How can I get published in the most prestigious
journal?” My husband asked a different question.
His
question was always, “who would be better off because of this
idea?” and concentrated on those that could have the greatest
impact. Eradicting poverty was the issue that he was the most
passionate about, and his work on the BOP is the ultimate
embodiment of his values.
It is therefore a great honor for us to be here and have The LIBA
Centre for Emerging India named after him. It takes me back to
our very early years, where my husband and I spent hours
discussing how we could give back and contribute toward making
India a better place. Today, I think young people are even more
fortunate because so much has been done and people understand
that India is a place that can generate ideas that will impact the
whole world. It is a point of great pride for all of us that my
husband was a key driver in this transition during his lifetime.
As a family, we feel fortunate to have had him as a loving and
devoted husband, father and a grandfather. When we count our
blessings, we always count him multiple times. Going forward, I
know all of us will walk in his light and not in his shadow.
Celebrating Dr. C. K. Prahalad
The function was attended by Mr.LonnieSapp, MD, Connectivity
Data Systems as the Chief Guest and the Guests of Honour
included Mr R. Kannan, Secretary of Higher Education and Mr. M.
M. Jacob, Former Governor, Meghalaya. The key note address was
delivered by Mr. Sunil Biyani, Director, Future Group.
Insight - A flagship National Management Symposium is
organized by LIBA every year. Insight 2011 was about The
Next Practices in Competency and Inclusion and was held on
November 09, 2011 at Chennai Trade Centre, Chennai
The key speakers at the function were Mr. Mayur Abhaya Kumar
Srisrimal President & Executive Director, LifeCell International,
Mr.Rajan Srinivasan CGM, State Bank of India, Mr R Rajendran
CFO, Lakshmi Machine Works, Mr. Vijay R Kumar Head
Chennai Centre Logica India, Mr. P.C. James- General Manager,
United India Insurance, Ms. PoonamKaul -Director, Nokia India,
Mr. Pashupati Gopalan-CEO, SunEdison, Mr. J Rajan, GM Gujarat
Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.
The LIBA Insight '11 focused on the seminal works of the
management guru par excellence Dr C. K. Prahalad. His
contribution to the world of business has been humanistic,
universal, futuristic and truly path breaking.
The symposium deliberated on how his concepts affect
organisations, economy and consumers, be it the idea of Core
Competence, Fortune at the Base of the Pyramid, Next
Practices or others Each idea in isolation or together has the
power to catapult an organisation into an unrivalled trajectory.
The symposium looked at how firms have implemented such
ideas, how some of the successes of application can be
replicated in other industries and firms.
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C K Prahalad
Centre for Emerging India
Activities of the Centre
Incubation Activities
The Centre will incubate activities which have a clear mandate as
social enterprises. LIBA worked on the business plan competitions
in the TiECON in 2011. The Centre will look at new applications
which can be incubated as social enterprises.
Capacity building
The Centre will work on designing course modules which will be
part of the training programs for social entrepreneurs. The Centre
has had initial discussions with Vilgro, Chennai to work on
designing course modules ( for Capacity Building) which will be
part of the training program for social enterprises.
Case writing
The Centre has one of its main focus to put together case studies of
social entrepreneurs in the country. Centre has started to put
together profiles of various small scale entrepreneurs on which
preliminary work has started.
l Microinsurance - A scoping study has been initiated to look at the
status of micro insurance in India. The study is being done together
with Prof. Lazar, Central University, Pondicherry and Catholic
University, Milan.
l Organic Products
the Centre is collaborating with IFMR,
Chennai in a study which seeks to look at the markets for organic
products in the cities of Chandigarh and Delhi.
Networking
To build capacity and incubate the social enterprises the Centre has
built links with various stakeholders in Universities and other
organisations.
National:
l The Centre has a MoU with Vilgro for incubating activities.
l Centre proposes to finalise its terms of association with Ashoka
Foundation
International:
The Centre has a MoU with the Santa Clara University to
research which is useful in connecting social entrepreneurs in
India with global knowledge and local access to critical
innovation resources.
l The Centre also is partnering with the Georgetown University for
hosting interns from the program Masters in Global Human
Development.
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Research
The Centre will focus on a few key areas of research which impact
the underprivileged and the needy.
l Low Cost Housing -A study has been taken up to understand the
market for the use of eco-friendly materials in low cost housing.
The study will look at how the builders perceive the potential
market for low cost houses. (sponsored by Catholic University,
Milan).
Advisory Board
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Fr N. Casimir Raj, SJ, Director, Prof. C. K. Prahalad Centre for Emerging India
Mr Arun Maira, Member, Planning Commission, Govt. of India
Mr Bhadrashyam H. Kothari, Chairman, H. C. Kothari Group of Companies
Fr P. Christie, SJ, Director, LIBA
Ms Deepa Prahalad, CEO, Anuvaa LLC
Mr Gopal Srinivasan, CMD, TVS Capital Funds Ltd.
Mr R. Gopalan, IAS, Secretary, Economic Affairs, Govt. of India
Mr Jaithirth Rao, Chairman, Value & Budget Housing Corporation
Prof. Jay Amaran, Vice President, Global Determinants, Inc., USA
Mr Joseph Raj, Chairman & MD, Oceanaa Group
Mr Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice Chairman, Cognizant Technology Solutions
Mr R. Ramaraj, Senior Advisor, Sequoia Capital India
Ms Shikha Sharma, MD & CEO, Axis Bank
Mr Xavier Britto, Chairman & MD, Indev Group of Companies
Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), Chennai, established in 1979, is a premier Jesuit institution,
consistently ranked among the best business schools in the country. The institute lays stress on holistic learning with
particular emphasis on excellence and ethics. It seeks to achieve the same by forming men and women imbued with a spirit
of innovation and entrepreneurship. Considered as a rich resource Centre for research and innovation, LIBA has several
international collaborations and many Centres of excellence to ensure that cutting-edge business ideas and practices are
introduced and infused in its students. One more noble effort to achieve this vision is the launch of the Prof. C. K. Prahalad
Centre for Emerging India.