Management Guru
RAMCHARAN
Submitted by,
Rekha.G &
Satishkumar
contents
• Introduction
• Biography
• Career
• Books of ram charan
• Awards
• Ram charan points
INTRODUCTION
• "Real leaders, I have found, exhibit an enthusiasm for selecting people
who are better than they are.“
• Ram Charan is one of the world's most popular business advisors. Known
for his ability to solve the toughest business problems, he has worked with
some of the most successful companies, including GE, Verizon, Novartis,
Dupont, Thomson Corporation, Honeywell etc over the last three decades.
Born in 1939 in Uttar Pradesh, Charan participated actively in the family's
shoe business.
• With an engineering degree, he left India to take up a job in Australia and
then in Hawaii. He later did his MBA and doctorate degrees from Harvard
Business School, where he graduated with high distinction.
After receiving his doctorate degree, he started teaching at the Harvard
Business School faculty.
• Charan is known for offering timely and relevant advice to solve complex
business problems. He is the author of multiple books, including his latest
publication, Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to
Ask.
He served on the Blue Ribbon Commission on corporate governance and
was selected as a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academy of Human
Resources. He sits on the boards of Austin Industries and Tyco Electronics.
Charan runs his business management consulting company under the name
Charan Associates located in Dallas.
Biography
• 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. He
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, he served on the Harvard Business School faculty.
• Dr. 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 his
recommendations for achieving profitable growth, for example, are to search for
"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, Dr. 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 his
advice on talent planning and key hires.
• Many people have come to know Dr. Charan through in-house executive
education programs. His energetic, interactive teaching style has won him
several awards.
• Over the past decade, Dr. Charan has captured his business insights in
numerous books and articles. In the past five years, Dr. Charan's books
have sold more than 2 million copies. These include the bestseller
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done and Confronting
Reality, both co-authored with Larry Bossidy, What the CEO Wants You to
Know, Boards at Work, Every Business Is a Growth Business, Profitable
Growth, and Boards That Deliver. A frequent contributor to Fortune, Dr.
Charan has written two cover stories, "Why CEOs Fail" and "Why
Companies Fail." His other articles have appeared in the Financial Times,
Harvard Business Review, Director's Monthly, and Strategy and Business.
• Dr. Charan has served on the Blue Ribbon Commission on Corporate
Governance and was elected a Distinguished Fellow of the National
• Academy of Human Resources. He is on the board of Austin Industries and
Tyco Electronics. Dr. Charan is based in Dallas, TX.
• Praise for Ram Charan
• "Ram Charan [consults] for the largest and most powerful companies . . .
even more than his dedication, it's his insights that have won him the ear of
hundreds of top managers. . . . What Charan loves to do is to solve
business problems. With his plainspoken Socratic approach, he helps
demolish organizational silos or persuade entrenched executives to change
their points of view. . . . Companies seek him out for his 'wise man'
approach rather than choosing a consultant with a narrow specialty."
Career
Charan has consulted for companies such as GE ,KLM and Bank of
America. He is the author of various books on business, including
Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty: The New Rules for Getting
the Right Things Done in Difficult Times, Boards That Deliver, What The
CEO Wants You To Know, Boards At Work, Every Business Is A Growth
Business (with Noel Tichy), Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business,
Confronting Reality,Know How and Execution (with Larry Bossidy and
Charles Burck), which was a best-seller.
Charan run his business management consulting company under the
name Charan Associates located in Dallas, TX. Records show the company
was established in 1981 and incorporated in Texas.
• Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of $500,000
to $1 million and employs a staff of approximately 1 to 4. Charan sits on
the board for Austin Industries, SSA & Company (formerly Six Sigma
Academy) ,and Tyco Electronics.
• Charan partnered with Kevin Cope and Stephen M.R. Covey to form
Acumen Learning. Acumen Learning and Ram Charan have an agreement
to use the concepts in his book: "What the CEO Wants You to Know".
• Ram has helped to define and popularize the idea of business acumen being
an essential leadership characteristic in management.
• Charan was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Human
Resources in 2000 and named a Distinguished Fellow in 2005. Charan was
in India in the month of February 2010 to give a presentation
Books of Ramcharan
• The Talent Masters
• Owning Up
• Leaders At All Levels
• Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty
• The Game Changer
• What the Customer Wants You To Know
• Know-How
• Confronting Reality
• Execution
• Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business
• What the CEO Wants You to Know
• Boards That Deliver
• The Leadership Pipeline
• Boards at Work
Awards
• The American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) presented
Ram Charan with its Champion of Workplace Learning and Performance
Award on May 17, 2010.
• The Economic Times of India named Ram Charan Global Indian of the
Year for 2010.
• He won the Bell Ringer award at GE's famous Croton Ville Institute and
best teacher award at Northwestern. He was among Business Week's top ten
resources for in-house executive development programs
Ram charan points
• If you are a top manager facing this current crunch, you must have faith in
yourself. You must assume a positive attitude and focus on what must be done
in your company.
• Cash is king. Realize that with financial markets in turmoil and credit tight to
non-existent, your business model must now revolve around cash.
• Monitor your cash. If you are leveraged, watch your cash every day. Track it.
Assess cash flow in coming weeks and months.
• Take advantage of your human and systemic resources. Convince your
workforce that cash is king and have them make their own assessments about
how to keep it flowing. Sales, IT and back office folk all can lend important
insights on how to improve your cash position. They can provide crucial
intelligence about what is really going on and what steps can be taken.
• Review your customers regarding their cash-worthiness. If you have
customers who have good cash flows and the prospects of more, work with
them and tighten your relationships. Help them grow. If they have little cash,
restrict your involvement.
