Strategy & Leadership

Purpose – This interview of C.K. Prahalad, one of the world's leading strategic thinkers, aims to offer corporate leaders a practical look at the radical concepts presented in his The New Age of Innovation (HBP, 2008), written with M.S. Krishnan. A lengthy review of the book is also in this issue.

Design/methodology/approach – The questions for this interview were researched by a team of Strategy & Leadership contributing editors. The interview was conducted by Robert J. Allio, a consultant who has previously been a senior executive at major US and Canadian corporations and a business school dean.

Practical implications – Prahalad believes that many businesses will undergo a transformation in the near future as value shifts from offering products to providing co-created personalized experiences.

Originality/value – Because his new ideas explore the cutting-edge of management innovation, managers will likely appreciate having Prahalad explain how his new model works. It posits that value will be determined by one customer co-created experience at a time, defined as n=1; and to compete successfully in this environment, firms must access resources from multiple outside sources, either local or global, defined as R=G. In this interview he discusses the practical steps needed to ready a company to compete in this new business landscape.