Ram Charan is a highly sought after business advisor and speaker famous among senior executives for his uncanny ability to solve their toughest business problems. For more than thirty-five years, Dr. Charan has worked behind the scenes with top executives at some of the world's most successful companies, including GE, Verizon, Novartis, Dupont, Thomson Corporation, Honeywell, KLM, Bank of America and MeadWestvaco. He has shared his insights with many others through teaching and writing.

Dr. Charan's introduction to business came early while working in the family shoe shop in the small Indian town where he was raised. He earned an engineering degree in India and soon after took a job in Australia and then in Hawaii. When his talent for business was discovered, Dr. Charan was encouraged to pursue it. He earned MBA and doctorate degrees from Harvard Business School, where he graduated with high distinction and was a Baker Scholar. After receiving his doctorate degree, he served on the Harvard Business School faculty.

Dr. Charan is well-known for providing advice that is down to earth and relevant and that takes into account the real-world complexities of business. Among his recommendations for achieving profitable growth, for example, are to search for "singles and doubles" as well as home runs and to develop what he calls a "growth budget" to instill discipline on growth initiatives. Identified by Fortune as the leading expert in corporate governance, Dr. Charan is helping boards go beyond the requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley and the New York Stock Exchange by providing practical ways to improve their group dynamics. Boards, CEOs and senior-most human resource executives often seek his advice on talent planning and key hires.

Many people have come to know Dr. Charan through in-house executive education programs. His energetic, interactive teaching style has won him several awards. He won 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.

Over the past decade, Dr. Charan has captured his business insights in numerous books and articles. In the past five years, Dr. Charan's books have sold more than 2 million copies. These include the bestseller Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done and Confronting Reality, both co-authored with Larry Bossidy, What the Customer Wants You to Know, Leaders at All Levels, Know-How, What the CEO Wants You to Know, Boards at Work, Every Business Is a Growth Business, Profitable Growth and Boards That Deliver. A frequent contributor to Fortune, Dr. Charan has written two cover stories, "Why CEOs Fail" and "Why Companies Fail." His other articles have appeared in the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, Director's Monthly and Strategy and Business.

• Leadership Know-How - Why do so many leaders fail? Very simple: they don't know how to run a business. Aspiring leaders focus way too much on their personal style and personality and not nearly enough on building the capabilities they need to make the business perform. Based on Charan's book Know-How: The 8 Skills that Separate People Who Perform From Those Who Don't.
  
  
• Business Acumen - Some people have a nose for business. More often than not, their instincts take them in the right direction, and the company makes money. These people have business acumen. What exactly is business acumen? Is it a raw talent or something that can be cultivated and improved? How does the business acumen of a Jack Welch differ from that of a street vendor in India? Based on the book What the CEO Wants You to Know: How Your Company Really Works.
  
  
• Execution - For many leaders, creating a strategy is the easy part. Making it happen is the bigger challenge. Why is flawless execution so hard to achieve? Because few leaders understand what it requires. Execution takes personal discipline, and more important, a systematic approach to synchronizing the moving parts of the organization. Based on the best-selling and highly praised book Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done.
  
  
• Growth - Especially in a slow economy, growth can seem impossible to achieve. But growth opportunities almost always exist. What is needed is a disciplined approach to identify, pursue, and fund them. Based on Charan's two books on growth, Every Business is a Growth Business and Profitable Growth is Everyone's Business: 10 Tools You Can Use Monday Morning.
  
  
• Corporate Governance - Sarbanes-Oxley and the NYSE guidelines can go only so far. Boards must go beyond compliance to ensure that they are focusing on the substance of corporate governance: providing oversight and adding value. Designed for those involved in corporate governance, this session is practical and down to earth. Based on Boards at Work (1997) and Boards That Deliver (2005) informed by work with some of the country's best boards, it shows how any board can be among the best.