Ram Charan: Renowned Business Advisor, Bestselling Author, Keynote Speaker on Strategy & Execution

Ram Charan is a highly sought after business advisor and speaker, famous among senior executives for his uncanny ability to solve their toughest business problems. For more than thirty-five years, Dr. Charan has worked behind the scenes with top executives at some of the world's most successful companies, including GE, Verizon, Novartis, Dupont, Thomson Corporation, Honeywell, KLM, Bank of America, and MeadWestvaco. Ram Charan has shared his insights with many others through his teaching and writing.

Dr. Charan's introduction to business came early while working in the family shoe shop in the small Indian town where he was raised. He earned an engineering degree in India and soon after took a job in Australia and then in Hawaii. When his talent for business was discovered, Dr. Charan was encouraged to pursue it. Ram Charan earned MBA and doctorate degrees from Harvard Business School, where he graduated with high distinction and was a Baker Scholar. After receiving his doctorate degree, Dr. Charan served on the Harvard Business School faculty.

Ram Charan is well known for providing advice that is down-to-earth and relevant and that takes into account the real-world complexities of business. Among Dr. Charan's recommendations for achieving profitable growth, for example, are to produce "singles and doubles" as well as home-runs and to develop what he calls a "growth budget" to instill discipline on growth initiatives.

Identified by Fortune as the leading expert in corporate governance, Ram Charan is helping boards go beyond the requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley and the New York Stock Exchange by providing practical ways to improve their group dynamics. Boards, CEOs, and senior-most human resource executives often seek Dr. Charan's advice on talent planning and key hires.

More About speaker, Ram Charan...
Many people have come to know Ram Charan through in-house executive education programs. His energetic, interactive teaching style has won him several awards. Ram Charan won the "Bell Ringer" award at GE's famous Crotonville Institute and "Best Teacher" award at Northwestern. Dr. Charan was also among BusinessWeek's top ten resources for in-house executive development programs.

http://www.bigspeak.com/ran-charan.htm

---

Closed Caption:

are you going to thrive in the
uncertainty or already going to be
defensive
so i take current examples how many of
you are conversant right now about the
japanese yen what's happening raise your
hands please
japanese read it it's very importantly
it has depreciated roughly twenty
percent now it's news
it's here that's not my purpose or
doesn't want to think about and you're
very bright people when i meet the
doctors and the IT people they are the
brightest people you meet all over the
place as I take you through this
this is a very important part because i
learned from practitioners like you and
that's what i do is teach japanese yen
is that roughly twenty percent
appreciated who should be thinking what
is the impact and what uncertainty does
it create and then asked the question
which is more important and that is what
was the catalyst that drove that change
in the Japanese in the learning about
uncertainty and this is the most
important part of my whole talk is to be
able to see the catalyst and . a
catalyst find the catalyst that catalyst
for this part blog and the change takes
place i'll go quickly with you my view
we don't have three hours to go through
discussion on this but you can ask me
questions as the japanese yen depreciate
twenty percent does it have any
implications for the manufacturers of
automobiles should they be waiting for
their strategic plan or should they be
moving and meeting right now and saying
is there a bend
in the road am i clear india if the
indian rupee and the japanese yen
exchanged amazed the same exchange rate
shared the Korean manufacturers and
marketers in India ought to be having
your meeting right now and say what
could happen to their market shares in
the appliances in India
am i clear think outside the box think
at higher altitudes take very something
specific look at second order third
order fourth-order consequences and
these are very viable things this
depreciation has taken place in the last
two weeks is not over yet
it's not too late yet now that's
description you know it worked through
that's not my point the point is what
was the catalyst that drone that change
and that catalyst is the election of the
new prime minister mr. other why
CEOs of major companies spending time in
Washington in tokyo in other places
which i'll give you tools is to see
which way the geopolitical trend is
moving and then seeing if that catalyst
takes place what would be some of the
outcomes is this making sense of here in
India I'm not here is the election or
the election for the appointment of new
finance minister in the last eight
months beginning to show any promise say
yes catalyst you may have a different
opinion and you should is the catalyst
that a new finance minister you know
what I mean new furnace has been there
before but his behavior is thinking
going forward so you go to Singapore he
goes to London and there he meets with
these investors some of them are my
clients and they say yeah I see more
confidence to create more FDI in India
catalyst am i clear the concept of
catalyst weekend forecast exactly what
will happen but you identify what the
catalyst are the second point I want to
mention to you about in the solar
certainty if the uncertainty is very
high
it's very volatile it will reshape the
external landscape it will never be the
same if it reshapes the landscape then
you say what does it mean for us and we
react what do we do for example i want
to give you this is aight i'll give you
some examples about the future i'll go
on the line with you
how many of you heard of Napster napster
after know what I'm talking about this
is you guys know this i'm giving you a
realistic here it looks hide but they're
learning here of the catalyst
Napster at the time i'm talking has been
established people in music industry are
saying we're going to kill them
we're going to file a lawsuit we going
to do this we're going to do this so i
have gone to make a presentation to the
board room of a company called seagrams
this is the canadian company anybody
heard of shoes regal your video these
guys only at that time now mr mallya on
sit and here in the boardroom these are
very good shots and they're talking
Nestor you're going to get the lawyers
going to kill him and seagrams own the
world's largest music company called
Universal and they're talking and
talking and talking and then the whole
thing dies down and then one director
says he says Edgar no law will prevent
his social change physical description
they got the files you can download the
physical social description it gives
freedom to the consumer
it helps connect people is that a minor
change or a major change it was all
there at this point of time no
forecasting no second guessing it's all
there but who are observing it Tony
Phillips somebody outside the industry
and Steve Jobs looks at it now please
note you'll notice the mp3 was
originally invented in Germany Japanese
pick it up he saw an opening he saw a
landscape changing he figures it out
from then on how many industries changed
in those
how many thrived and how many
disappeared no technology is going to
change anything unless you have a
catalyst you go to the history is the
people who are the catalyst on those
catalyst create uncertainty as you go
forward