nuance intelligence

C.K. Prahalad is a respected author and professor at Michigan’s Ross School of Business. He and co-author M.S. Krishnan are promoting their new book, The Age of Innovation, in several ways, including a speaking tour and a blog in partnership with Information Week.

Their central thesis is “n=1, r=g.”  N=1 means that you’ve got to build products that each customer can customize to their use.  R=g means that resources are global, and you’ve got to have a ultra-flexible supply chain for your business.

What’s the nuance? Prahalad is the author of many influential strategy and management books, including The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, which recognized the economic opportunity among the poorest billion people.

Unfortunately for us (or at least our focus on entrepreneurs), most of his work is focused on multi-national corporations.  This review at Next Billion asks how to tie these new lessons into the global entrepreneurial market.

At the meta-level, it’s interesting to see Prahalad partnering with IW in a blog to kick this off.  I fear these guys will only blog the book into a profitable position on corporate best-seller lists, and then move on to the next idea.  But maybe they’ll learn from Freakonomics authors Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt, who are still blogging strong on the Freakonomics / New York Times blog, which launched to great fanfare in 2004.