Almost 3 years back out of shear curiosity I try to find out who is the best management consultant of recent times (an individual not an organization)? Google spit out various results and out of those results this is one individual got my attention – Ram Charan (who I will call RC in the rest of this blog). RC is considered to be one of the top management gurus with unlimited access to the boardrooms of some of the major firms on this planet. With his relentless work habits combined with his impressive management chops RC has helped many prestigious organizations in the development of their company’s critical management strategy. The coterie of some most powerful CEOs often turn to RC in using his unparallel knowledge of management consulting. The elite list includes Jack Welch (former GE CEO), Ivan Seidenberg (Verizon CEO) & John Reed (former CEO Citicorp).
No matter how much I read about RC I get this feeling there is still more to read about him and try to uncover as much as possible. RC has this unique quality which makes him different from the professionals in the same league and that one thing is he has devoted his entire life to one and only one thing – Business. He immersed himself in work all the time. As stated by one of his CEO friends, “RC can go anywhere anytime and he never misses an appointment”. His whole life revolves around solving the intricacies of Business. He is indefatigable and is always on the move. Excited? Here is more.
RC is around 72 now. RC never got married and has no children. RC does not own a car or know how to drive one (I guess he found no time to learn driving). He prefers CABs, trains and air planes as his primary mode of commuting. He goes from one country to another one company to another and his typical itinerary looks something like this.
Sunday morning in Beijing. Monday morning in Delhi. Wednesday in Bombay. Saturday in Singapore. Wednesday in Johannesburg. Friday morning in New York. Fly out the same night to Dubai. Dubai on Sunday and Monday, then come back to New York. On Thursday night fly out to Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Then back to New York. Tuesday morning whole-day schedule in New York. Tuesday night off to Chicago. Fly out for a meeting in Philadelphia. Then out to a meeting in San Francico. Monday morning breakfast meeting in New York and then flying out to Perth, Australia. Swooshhhhh !!! Looking at his schedule one of his client’s suggested RC to buy his own private plane which he can very well own. He charges around $20,000 per day (tops) for his services and can own a plane for sure. But he will not buy one, as again he does not have time to get lost in the comforts of his private plane.
With such a rigorous schedule RC figured out that Airport is his first home. He does not have a second home. Yes, that is right. He never bought a house (or rent one) and he used to live in the hotel all his life. Before becoming a consultant he used to sleep in dormitories and before that he used to be in YMCAs. At times his client’s took pity on him and offer their home to spend the night. I was reading recently and it seems he bought an apartment in Dallas but he has no plans of moving there. He does own a small office in Dallas (where he never goes). His secretaries manage his day to day schedule. Now here comes the funny part. Three days a week Monday, Wednesday, and Friday his secretary pack a box with shirts, underwear, socks, suit, and a pair of pants. In the same box they also put in razors, toothpaste, shampoo, shoes and stuff which he might need and send it by FedEx to RC’s hotel (wherever in the World that may be). RC then filled that box with dirty laundry and returned it back. RC is not having the habit of buying things and the only place he knows from where to get his stuff is his FedEx packet(the one sent to him by his secretaries). Now who can live a life that? For one day or as a matter of fact one week or one month is fine, but this man spends his entire life serving the sole purpose of serving his clients. Unbelievable.
RC holds an American nationality but was born in a small town (Hapur) in Northern India near the capital of the country, Delhi. He used to work with his father in the family’s shoe shop. From an early age he got the passion for business and used to count the money at the end of each business day keeping a record of total cash earned in the shoe shop. RC was a bright student, so when all his siblings decided to join the family business full time, RC concentrated on his studies and graduated from the prestigious Banaras University in Varanasi. After the graduation he was given the chance to participate in the student exchange program in Sydney, Australia. He used to work as a gardener during first few days in Sydney and later worked as a draftsman. To refine his business skills RC decided to pursue an MBA and got admitted in the Harvard Business School (HBS) where is graduated within the top 3% of his class. He did not stop here and finished his PhD from Harvard. RC used to teach at HBS and later joined Kellogg’s Northwestern School of Management. More than 30 years ago, RC decided to join full time business consulting because in some point in time he thought he will be better off practicing management instead of teaching it.
RC is so passionate about solving business problems that he never gives importance to himself or his personal comforts. Even owning an iPod and listening to his favorite Indian vocalist Lata Mangeshkar seems to be a distraction for him. Someone who knows RC well says he has no goals and he does not know what his next move is.
RC - business consultant, speaker & writer. He keeps on wandering from airport to airport, company to company because he is only sent from up above to practice business consulting. That’s what he is good at, that’s what he does and that’s what he keeps on doing, day in day out. No one, not even RC has control over his intractable life. He is simply amazing at whatever he does and he knows that.
No comments:
Post a Comment