Season 3 - Ep. 7 | Common Sense is Very Uncommon: A Conversation with Corporate Sage Ram Charan

Ram Charan is a world-renowned business advisor who has been called the most influential consultant alive by Fortune magazine. He started his business education as a child in his family’s shoe shop, where holidays and weekends did not mean a day off. He’s taken that knowledge and work ethic far beyond the borders of his small village in India. Ram’s intellect caught the eye of Harvard Business School and eventually led to a career in academia. But his thirst for knowledge and action couldn’t be confined to the classroom. Ram set out on his own, where his business acumen and ability to whittle any problem down to an actionable task list earned him a seat at the table of some of the biggest corporations in the world. He has advised global companies such as Toyota, Bank of America, and Novartis, helping them cut through complexities in order to focus on core business problems. Ram has also authored and co-authored over 30 books- including four Wall Street Journal bestsellers.

In this episode we manage to get Ram, the constant world traveler, to stop for 30 minutes and share his insights. Hosts Clarke Murphy and Nanaz Mohtashami chat with Ram about his coaching style and why EQ and LQ are often more important than IQ. From sports analogies to business anecdotes, listen in as Ram shares his expertise on how to turn advice into action.

If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like these Redefiners episodes:

• How the Barely Possible Can Overcome the Barely Solvable with First Mode’s Chris Voorhees 
  

• Leadership Reimagined: Transformation Tips from Jim Hagemann Snabe 
  

• Private Investment Guru David Rubenstein Goes Public on How to Be a Successful Leader & Investor 

Ram Charan

In his work with companies including Toyota, Bank of America, Key Bank, ICICI Bank, Aditya Birla Group, Novartis, Max Group, Yildiz Holdings, UST Global, Fast Retailing (Uniqlo), Humana and Matrix, he is known for cutting through the complexity of running a business in today’s fast changing environment to uncover the core business problem.

His real-world solutions, shared with millions through his books and articles in top business publications, have been praised for being practical, relevant and highly actionable — the kind of advice you can use Monday morning.  Jack Welch, former Chairman of GE said, “He has the rare ability to distill meaningful from meaningless and transfer it to others in a quiet, effective way.”

Professor Charan has coached more than a dozen leaders who went on to become CEOs. He reaches many more up and coming business leaders through in-house executive education programs. His energetic, interactive teaching style has won him several awards, including the Bell Ringer award at GE’s famous Crotonville Institute and best teacher award at Northwestern.

He was among Business Week‘s top ten resources for in-house executive development programs. Ram has authored or coauthored more than 30 books that have sold over 4 million copies in more than a dozen languages.  Four of his books were Wall Street Journal bestsellers, including Execution (coauthored with former Honeywell CEO Larry Bossidy), which spent more than 150 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. He also has written for publications including over 12 articles for Harvard Business Review, 12 articles for Fortune and numerous articles for BusinessWeek, Time, Chief Executive and USA TODAY.

Ram was elected a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources and was named one of the most influential people in corporate governance and the board room by Directorship magazine. He has served on the Blue Ribbon Commission on Corporate Governance and serves or has served on a dozen boards in the US, Brazil, China, India, Canada, and Dubai.