The man who would influence eternity

"A teacher affects eternity, he can never tell where his influence stops."
— Henry Brooks Adams
Sitting in C K Prahalad's Business Strategy lecture at IIMA, little did we know we were part of management history that was created by our legendary professor. Over the years, C K — as we fondly referred to him — was consistently voted among the top 50 global business thinkers, topping the 2009 list ahead of Michael Porter, Malcolm Gladwell, Bill Gates and others.For us, he was our mentor, guide and friend.
C K saw the world differently from all of us. His ability to simplify complexity was absolutely awesome as was his ability to fold in the future. I (Vindi) was among a select group of senior Unilever managers led by him to evolve our strategy. He created foresight and direction from unconnected data points yet left us feeling we had found the answers instead of him. He was an invaluable member of the Hindustan Unilever board and once persuaded us to invite the board members' wives to a strategy discussion. His enthusiasm in talking about the business of HUL to them was unparalleled as was the clarity of the discussion. We can't think of anyone else who could draw such insights from their refreshing naivety about the business.
A contrarian thinker, C K was happiest when challenging the status quo. Every time he thought he had found his comfort zone, it was time for him to move on. The ‘bottom of the pyramid' is perhaps the best example of this contrarian thinking. Nobody but he could imagine that the poor of the world would be a large consumer universe. Striking out against the dominant logic is what made him such a great teacher. He looked beyond the class room and often said his goal was to give students perspective. And if that made a small difference to the way they approached their life, that was good enough for him.
C K had a strong belief in the institution of the family and was strongly supported by Gayatri, Deepa and Murali. We, too, were fortunate to be included in their extended family over the years. Our stay in his beautiful San Diego house felt like being at home. We were pampered by Gayatri whilst being constantly stimulated with thoughts and ideas from C K who could think 25/8. It remains our best memory of him. His father, a Sanskrit scholar, was his role model and inspired this eternal quest for answers to difficult questions. We could see how he was trying to pass it on to his children Deepa and Murli.
There are not many who believe in India with the same passion as did C K and, indeed, do Gayatri, Deepa and Murli. He spoke about his vision for India with the zeal of an evangelist and always left us inspired and invigorated. We are trying not to think about going to our son's graduation in the US next month and not seeing him there. We will remember C K with this line: "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail behind."
Vindi Banga is president, Global Foods, Home & Personal Care and a member of the Unilever Executive. Kamini Banga is MD, Dimensions Consultancy