Ram Charan

Business Advisor, Author

Coach of most influential CEOs

Ram Charan speaker, keynote speech, management
English

Ram Charan is a highly acclaimed business advisor and leading author of top business books and articles. Active advisor to CEO’s of Fortune 100 companies and emerging venture capital funded firms he specializes in converting vision into reality and action.

Ram Charan is an expert in executing business strategies for bottom line results, he shows decision makers how to achieve profitable top line growth that is also capital efficient. Ram Charan has a reputation for practical solutions with a real world perspective and his expertise runs deep in several key areas of business.

Ram Charan started his business career as a teenager working in the family shoe shop in India.  He went on to earn a degree in engineering and then MBA and doctorate degrees from Harvard Business School.  After graduating with a high distinction he went on to serve as a member of the Harvard Business School faculty.

Ram Charan is a favorite among executive educators and has won a number of significant teaching awards including the Bell Ringer (best teacher) award at GE’s famous Crotonville Institute and similar awards at Wharton School’s Life Insurance Institute and Northwestern.  He was among Business Week’s top ten resources for in-house executive development programmes.

Ram Charan has had numerous articles published in Harvard’s Business Review, Fortune, Time, Director’s Monthly and USA Today and in addition he has written several highly informative books, he often specializes in tailoring his books for specific client companies. Based on a Business Week survey of 514 businesses (Oct. 2001) Ram Charam was voted 2 Top Management Guru covering all categories such as leadership, strategy, etc. in front of John Kotter, Jay Conger and Peter Drucker.

With a broad spectrum of experience and an impeccable track record, Ram Charam is in high demand as a keynote speaker at major conferences around the globe.  He informs guides and offers invaluable practical advice to major corporate clients and top business leaders from the world’s most successful companies.

Books

The attacker's advantage-2015

Uncertainty has always been a challenge to business, but never before has it had the intensity and potential to change industries and destroy companies as it does today. Business leaders can be on the defensive, or they can be on offense, prepared to lead decisively. The ability to deal with uncertainty is perhaps the paramount skill leaders must have to be successful in this era. Without it they risk becoming personally obsolete and driving their companies off a cliff.

In The Attacker’s Advantage, renowned business expert and bestselling author Ram Charan shows what skills are needed to be able to spot the disruption that is coming, and what actions are necessary to take advantage of these changes. While many leaders know how to cope with operational uncertainty—when, for example, revenue fluctuates—the same cannot be said for dealing with structural uncertainty that can alter the money-making patterns of a company, industry or entire economic sector. Charan demonstrates the huge upside offered by structural uncertainty and provides the concepts and tools—such as being able to spot the catalysts of disruption, building organizational preparedness, developing a financial understanding of the consequences—to take advantage of forces that are creating new customer needs, market segments and ways to make money.

Uncertainty is now ubiquitous. The sources of structural change are varied and fast moving, and their convergence unpredictable. Digitization, algorithms, and the integration of technologies through sophisticated software and high powered hardware have already changed industries virtually overnight, but much more is to come. With his unparalleled ability to cut through complexity and provide workable solutions, Ram Charan provides readers of The Attacker’s Advantage with the ability to anticipate and deal with the biggest threats facing their business.

The attacker's advantage-2015

When to Take Charge, When to Partner, and When to Stay Out of the Way-2001

Change is coming. Leadership at the top is being redefined as boards take a more active role in decisions that once belonged solely to the CEO. But for all the advantages of increased board engagement, it can create debilitating questions of authority and dangerous meddling in day-to-day operations. Directors need a new road map—for when to lead, when to partner, and when to stay out of the way.

Boardroom veterans Ram Charan, Dennis Carey, and Michael Useem advocate this new governance model—a sharp departure from what has been demanded by governance activists, raters, and regulators—and reveal the emerging practices that are defining shared leadership of directors and executives. Based on personal interviews and the authors’ broad and deep experience working with executives and directors from dozens of the world’s largest firms, including Apple, Boeing, Ford, Infosys, and Lenovo, Boards That Lead tells the inside story behind the successes and pitfalls of this new leadership model and explains how to:

Define the central idea of the company
Ensure that the right CEO is in place and potential successors are identified
Recruit directors who add value
Root out board dysfunction
Select a board leader who deftly bridges the divide between management and the board
Set a high bar on ethics and risk
With a total of eighteen checklists that will transform board directors from monitors to leaders, Charan, Carey, and Useem provide a smart and practical guide for businesspeople everywhere—whether they occupy the boardroom or the C-suite.

When to Take Charge, When to Partner, and When to Stay Out of the Way-2001

Every business is a growth business- 1998

Every Business Is a Growth Business is your one-stop guide to making profitable growth happen. It’s a radical and refreshing source of ideas, inspiration, and common sense, all based on the unparalleled experience and access of Ram Charan and Noel M. Tichy.

Charan and Tichy have worked with some of the world’s leading executives–people such as Jack Welch of GE, Eckhard Pfeiffer of Compaq, Larry Bossidy of Allied Signal, John Reed of Citigroup, Dick Brown of Cable & Wireless, Alex Trotman and Jacques Nasser of Ford, and the senior management of Coca-Cola–who have transformed their companies into profitable growth machines. Every Business Is a Growth Business is a distillation of what the authors and these unique leaders have learned about profitable growth:

If your business isn’t growing sustainably and profitably, it’s dying.
Any business can grow profitably. There is no such thing as a mature business.
A company grows because growth is in the corporate mindset, created by the company’s leaders.
The mindset of growth starts at the top, but it must reach all the way to the bottom.
Sustainable growth is profitable and capital-efficient.
“Broadening your pond,” changing your company’s genetic code, developing a growth strategy from the outside in, and other unique ideas.
Every Business Is a Growth Business includes inside accounts of how GE Medical, Allied Signal, Compaq, Citibank, Reynolds and Reynolds, Praxair, and GE Capital developed profitable growth strategies. It includes “The Handbook for Growth,” a highly practical guide that will be an imm

Every business is a growth business- 1998

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