Ram Charan

Ram Charan is a world-renowned business consultant, author and speaker who has spent the past 40 years working with many top companies, CEOs, and boards of our time.

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, Matrix, Ram is known for cutting through the complexity of running a business in today’s fast changing environment to uncover the core business problem.

Ram’s 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–in areas such as growth, talent development, corporate governance, and moneymaking models for the digital age.

Ram was first introduced to business while working in the family shoe shop in a small town in northern India, where he was raised. He earned an engineering degree in India, then took a job in Australia. He went on to earn MBA and doctorate degrees from Harvard Business School, where he graduated with high distinction and was a Baker Scholar, and served on the faculties of Harvard Business School and Northwestern University before pursuing consulting full-time.

Ram 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 BusinessWeek‘s top ten resources for in-house executive development programs.

Ram has authored more than 30 books since 1998 that have sold over 4 million copies in more than a dozen languages. Three 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 Harvard Business Review, Fortune, BusinessWeek, Time, Chief Executive and USA TODAY.

Ram was elected a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources and has served on the Blue Ribbon Commission on Corporate Governance. He has served on the boards of Hindalco in India, Emaar, Austin Industries, Tyco Electronics, and Fischer and Porter.