Do these ideas get implemented?

To keep up to date, entrepreneurs do appreciate great idea people. I was sent this top 50 list of the best ideas people by an ideas man himself, Flavian Delima. To qualify, your ideas must get implemented and show results in companies. The top thinker on this prestigious list is CK Prahalad who used to co-author with Gary Hamel. Together, they introduced the idea of Core Competency to businesses which is one of the most enduring strategic concepts of the past 50 years.

I met both Hamel and Prahalad at a strategy conference in Chicago back in 1993 and was captivated. Hamel was by far the more showy of the two, and he can be credited with popularizing their ideas. Prahalad was more difficult to understand as he spoke in complex terms but obviously the deeper thinker of the pair.

They stopped working together and – like The Beatles – I have found their later work not to have had the same depth of theory combined with fiery rhetoric to get your ideas jumping from the text into your business. Maybe they will stage a reunion?

Jacoline Loewen, author and partner in private equity firm.

The interview with Prahalad is terrific and well worth a listen.