Biography

Ram CHARAN

2009 ranking: 13

Ram Charan

Ram Charan is a business consultant, speaker, and writer.

Charan worked in his family's shoe shop in northern India while growing up. He earned a degree in engineering from Banaras Hindu University and later studied at Harvard Business School, where he was awarded an MBA (1965) and a doctorate (1967). Before becoming a full-time consultant in 1978, he taught at the Harvard Business School, the Kellogg School of Management, and Boston University.

Charan has consulted for many well-known companies such as GE, KLM, and Bank of America. He is the author of various popular 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.

Ram is a workaholic. He is not married and has no children. At age 67, he recently purchased his first apartment in Dallas, TX. Before this purchase, he did not have a home and spent every night in a hotel room or at an associate's residence. Regardless of his location, his assistants in Dallas send him new clothes via courier and he returns his dirty laundry to them.

Charan was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources in 2000 and named a Distinguished Fellow in 2005. He is also a director of Austin Industries.

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