Teaching More Than Course Content

• Twice selected as the world’s leading management thinker, strategy professor C.K. Prahalad emphasized responsible management in his teaching.
• His teaching incorporated four elements: developing a point of view, sharing his values with students, exemplifying those values, and summarizing them at the end of each course.
• This classroom philosophy provides professors with a model for not only defining their own values but also guiding their students as they develop their own moral codes.

 
Business schools have been criticized in recent years for producing graduates who are selfish, unethical, and uninterested in the concerns of society. Although debatable, these criticisms do raise a fundamental question: How can instructors, regardless of their disciplines, incorporate values into their teaching?

We might answer this question by revisiting the teaching philosophy of one of management’s most prominent professors, C.K. Prahalad. Prahalad taught strategy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor from 1977 until his death in 2010.

As Time magazine put it soon after his passing, “Long recognized as one of the world’s foremost management thinkers, C.K. Prahalad was admired as much for his humanity as for his ideas on corporate strategy.” To be sure, he had a significant impact on management theory and practice, receiving honors and awards that included the Aspen Institute Faculty Pioneer Lifetime Award, the Harvard Business Review McKinsey Prize for best article (four times), the Padma Bhushan (one of India’s highest civilian awards), and several honorary doctorates.

C.K. Prahalad

In 2007 and 2009, Prahalad topped the Thinkers50 list, a biennial ranking of the leading management thinkers in the world, ahead of Bill Gates, Malcolm Gladwell, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, and Michael Porter. He is also well known for his 1998 article co-authored with Stuart Hart and his subsequent book, which raised awareness of the “bottom of the pyramid.” That term is still widely used today to refer to the billions of people in the world who live on less than 2 USD per day.

Prahalad’s level of impact extended to his classroom, where his teaching was not just about theoretical concepts. He covered practical ideas that have shaped business strategy, such as core competencies in a corporation, constrained innovation, dominant logic, and the needs of populations living in poverty. His courses were not only about corporate strategy, but also about what it means to be a responsible manager.

In looking at how Prahalad brought values alive for his students, I have found that his teaching philosophy embraced four primary aspects. As instructors, we can adopt his practical and empowering model in our own teaching by implementing the four elements of his approach.

1. Develop a Point of View

Prahalad often advised business leaders to develop a point of view, and this advice applies equally to faculty. Yet, we often find it difficult to articulate our innate values with others. Can you list the guiding principles that shape your values and beliefs? How would you explain them to friends and family?

Prahalad might tell us, as educators, to take time to clearly define the values that guide our thoughts and actions. To see how Prahalad defined his own values, see the list of ideals that he provided to his students, included in No. 4.

2. Share Your Values Throughout the Course

In 2022, I authored Seven Essentials for Business Success: Lessons from Legendary Professors. In this book, I delve into the best teaching practices of leading MBA professors, each representing a different discipline. Beyond possessing outstanding teaching skills and content expertise, these professors exhibit integrity in their teaching and actions.

Prahalad was no exception. His teaching left a lasting impact on his students, and his goals extended beyond strategy. For example, my book Michigan Ross School of Business: A Century of Stories Celebrating the “Leaders and Best” (2025) includes remembrances from several alumni who shared powerful memories of having Prahalad as a teacher.

Prahalad “implored us to go work for the smaller companies or the companies who were going through difficulties,” a former student said. “He wanted us to prove our worth and make a difference.” 

As one student recalled, “In 2007, I found myself in C.K.’s classroom for the first time and quickly came to realize that his agenda for his students was much broader than teaching us about the ‘bottom of the pyramid.’ He was determined to give us enduring lessons about moral leadership.”

Another former student provided an example of how Prahalad’s lessons continue to inspire alumni after three decades: “I will never forget the advice C.K. gave us students during that semester, even though it was over 30 years ago. He said that we were gifted with abilities and credentials. It bothered him when he saw people like that take the easy road and go work for some large and highly successful company.

“He said those companies don’t need you as much and they won’t challenge you as much. Instead, he implored us to go work for the smaller companies or the companies who were going through difficulties. Those are the places where you will stretch yourself and make greater contributions. He wanted us to prove our worth and make a difference.”

3. Walk the Talk

An instructor’s actions play a crucial role in establishing integrity. This is evident in another former student’s memory that illustrates Prahalad’s devotion to teaching.

“He generously agreed to create a strategy course that was held on Saturdays. … He would often fly all night from his consulting jobs in foreign countries to make our Saturday lectures,” the student recalled. “Those lectures were some of the most enthralling moments of my life. Dr. Prahalad would tirelessly lecture for several hours often, with no sleep and without a break, as I speedily took notes.”

At times, business instructors face difficult decisions that reveal their values. For example, several of Prahalad’s students were upset when one of their team members, a finance expert we’ll call “Bob,” refused to participate in a team project. The students then visited Prahalad’s office to ask him to remove Bob from the team.

One member of the team recalled Prahalad’s response. “I am not inclined to let you force Bob out of the group,” Prahalad told the students. “As you know, I come from India and there we believe that it is our responsibility to help those who need it.” When the students protested this decision, he replied, “This is his karma, and it will even itself out somewhere in his life. It is not for us to say when.”

During the final session of their courses, instructors have an opportunity to present their beliefs on responsible management one last time, like a lawyer making a closing argument at trial.

Prahalad’s decision provided a valuable learning experience. “The lessons from my favorite professor were manifold. I discovered how strong I was in finance when another team member and I were forced to run the numbers after Bob dropped out,” the student recounted.

“I learned that things are not always fair. Rather than focusing on our resentment, C.K. had turned us back toward the goal. How we felt about Bob didn’t matter. He didn’t or couldn’t or wouldn’t show up. That was our reality. It was how we chose to deal with it that mattered.”

4. Make a Closing Argument

During the final session of their courses, instructors have an opportunity to present their beliefs on responsible management one last time, like a lawyer making a closing argument at trial. As important as it is, however, this summary need not be extensive.

For instance, when closing his courses, Prahalad used around 12 minutes to outline his views. Below are several items on his list, adapted from a chapter dedicated to him in my new book:

• What is the meaning of being a responsible manager? The starting point for me is learning the importance of nonconformity and being a lonely thinker.
• Take personal responsibility to maintain your intellectual excellence, financial excellence, and good health—you cannot help other people if you’re not in good physical and mental health yourself.
• As leaders, we must put humility into our successes and courage into our failures—both are equally important.
• It’s our job to make sure that we stretch each person to the limits of his or her capabilities. This is also an obligation of all leaders.
• It’s also our job to make sure we respect all people and acknowledge and assimilate their differences. If we all do this, the world will be a safer place.
• It is important for us to recognize that people do not ask for favors—they ask for fairness. Therefore, it is important, especially in large organizations, to focus on due process to provide everybody with a voice, to listen to people, and to make sure that they’re treated fairly.
• We must think about loyalty as a multidimensional issue. Certainly, I expect to be loyal to my organization, to my profession, and to the communities in which I live and work—and, most important, to my family.
• Management is an interesting profession. We as managers are the very privileged few. That is a privilege, but it’s also the cross we will carry all our lives. This privilege carries with it an obligation to serve.
• As managers, we will be judged not by what we say we want to do, but by what we actually do.

In a speech that he gave at Prahalad’s memorial service, Manmohan Singh, then prime minister of India, observed, “Some people leave behind wealth, others leave behind some remnants of power, and some leave behind the passionate energy of their ideas that continually stimulate those whose lives they touch. C.K. Prahalad belonged to this third category.” 

By following Prahalad’s example—developing our perspectives on responsible management, sharing them with our students, and embodying them in our actions—we can instill values that will touch the lives of our students and those they impact for years to come.